Love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and hold fast to Him, for the Lord is your life! Deut. 30:20


Friday, January 6, 2012

Extended family Christmas

We had the extended Graber family Christmas on New Year's afternoon. This year we went to Al's sister's house in Little River. This was our first Christmas that both of Allen's parents are in heaven. Although we have gone to celebrate Christmas with Dad at the old folk's home, he hasn't been able to join us at our homes for several years because of his health.

When Dad died in August, as we were sorting his things, our sister-in-law, Brenda, took his old shirts with her. She knew someone in Lyons who made quilts from them. Isn't this neat?!

Russell, our brother-in-law, was wearing this pink t-shirt. Little River had a pink out night, where they honored Al's sister, Julie, at a football game. The whole town wore these shirts! She had breast cancer this year. Luckily, they were able to get it all and she is fine now.
After a delicious pot-luck (we always bring so much food!!), the children exchanged gifts. Then we did our traditional gift giving for the adults. Anyone who comes brings a gift. It can be a white elephant that is practical and useful, something you don't use anymore at your home, or it can be something not too expensive from the store.


We pick numbers. #1 picks the first gift. #2 can either steal #1's gift or draw from the pile. So on and so forth. This year I got stole from twice!


The girls always wrap their presents so nicely, but the guys love to throw it together. We have lots of fun and laughter!


After the gift exchange, we played a game that is a twist on the "telephone" game. You know where you whisper something into one person's ear and they whisper to the next person down the line. At the end, usually what comes out is not a thing like what was first said.



In this game, we all got a stack of paper. We all wrote down a phrase or word of something. For example, "baking a cake". The stack is passed to the next person in line. That person has 1 minute to draw a picture of someone baking a cake. Everyone passes their stack down the line. Now everyone writes down what they think that picture is about. So on and so forth. This is a hilarious game and we laughed and laughed at how it turned out.


Have a blessed and a Happy New Year to all!

1 comment:

Rich and Carolyn Dewey said...

What a fun time. That game sounds very fun!

And that wonderful quilt! Oh my, I bet it warm and cozy. Such a sweet memory of a loved one! Lucky person who received it!