Extended family Christmas party

On Saturday night it snowed quite a bit and was quite icy in the morning. Several churches cancelled services.  Ours didn't.  When we got to church and I got out of our pickup in the parking lot, my feet gave out from under me.  Luckily I was holding on to the door or I would have fallen on my bottom!

We wondered whether we would be having our family Christmas party.  It takes us an hour to get to Pretty Prairie and Reuben's family (from Hutch) and Julie's family (from Little River) also need to travel.  It was decided to give it a try.  The roads to Hutch were actually clear by the afternoon.  The ones from Hutch to Pretty Prairie were quite snow-packed and icy.  We drove slower than normal and did just fine.  Not everyone was able to come and they were missed.

GYM
We rented out the grade school gym and had a blast.

 

 

 
 

 Playing Knock-Out.

Senior Center
The senior center is right beside the school and we also rent that out.  This is where we eat and have our gift exchange.  We've done this for several years.

 It was Susie's 18th birthday.

 Always lots of food!!

Followed by the gift giving!

All the aunties go together to put together gift baskets for the grand kids.

Jill's family had illness and Josh's family won't arrive until New Year's so they will receive their gift bags later.

The newlyweds came from Iowa

After the children opened their gifts, the adults had their gift exchange.  All the guys bring a "guy gift" and all the ladies bring gifts for the "girls" to exchange.

Guys went first.  They drew numbers and #1 picked his gift.  After he opens it, #2 would either choose to pick a gift or steal #1's gift.  And on it goes.  At the end #1 gets to either keep what he has or trade.  Being #1 is actually a good thing!

Al's first gift was a fryer that Russell stole.

Al's 2nd gift.

Also stolen.  This was what he ended up with.

 Al is making a face - not because of the gift but because I made him pose once more.  The guys did a LOT of stealing!

 One daddy had his gift taken by his son.

 The ladies seemed to like their gifts and there was not too much stealing that went on.

Happy birthday to Susie!!

The brothers

 and their sister

After the party ended, we had to go down main street for old time's sake.

 No stop light in this small town of 600.

It was real foggy as we drove home after 10.  Some spots were hard to see in front of us.  But we made it safely home.  It is always good to be with family!