I come from a Game Family. I have many memories of playing Ants in Your Pants, Bumper Pool, Poker and Black Jack (with licorice candy) at Mimi and Papa Payne's, and memories of Shang-Hi and Dominoes for hours on end at Mimi and Papa Blair's house. Our long road trips from LA to VA and GA were not filled with DVD's and video games but Uno, Spades and Slap Jack. Times have not changed and I have a big sis who is an ultimate game player. She has a closet of nothing but games from floor to ceiling in her house! So it was no surprise when she came to our house for our Payne Christmas celebration carrying a stack of the latest and greatest games on the market.
I think this one was called Quelp. Each card that you are required to draw has these outragious things that you have to do...like keeping your hands like Rebecca is showing above or licking paper to your forehead and making it stick for a period of time like AB is modeling below.
Aunt Katie was required to keep her legs like scissors yet grab her opponents ankles. Although I did not play, it was just as entertaining to being a spectator.
Then the next game, Loopz, was like the old Simon but when the half loop lights up and beeps, you poke your hand near it to repeat the command. It kind of makes you look like a DJ scratching the records back and forth.
What a fun family I have! 
We kind of had 3 Christmas celebrations as we celebrated with my side of the family on Sunday and Monday. We had a house full with 10 kids and 8 adults. Here is Caleb with his cousin, Christian.
Lydia and James interacted with one another for the first time really. We found them giggling and spinning in circles, sharing and chasing one another.
We all gathered around the tree for a gift exchange. We chose to give $5 gifts to everyone this year. It was a bit challenging, but some of us thought it was a fun challenge.
Some families just pass everything out and the chaos begins (Payne tradition). Some families do one gift at a time, watching each other (Fish tradition) but it takes much longer if you have a large family like we do. Pops was asking us which way we'd like to do it this year. We opted for an in-between with passing 4 out at once.
The Giggle Girls loved their bath set from Nonie and Pops.
This was the 2nd year in a row that we celebrated Christmas day with just our family of 8.
Autumn got her first big rawhide and ran to her kennel to enjoy it (although Titus had no interest in his whatsoever). We have since found Autumn "digging" and burying her bone all over the house.
We then enjoyed a nice brunch together and a relaxing day to celebrate the
Traditionally we spent our Christmas Eve with G and G exchanging Fish gifts.
On Friday the kids had their Christmas musical performance, Camel Lot. It was written by a man who lives in this area and it was a great play. Caleb debuted as one of the 3 camels. (Creating a camel costume was a challenge for me!). Anna Blair was a shepherd. They did a super job and we were very entertained with the songs, choreography and lines. Five grandparents were able to attend also. What a treat! After the performance, we attended their class parties to kick off the beginning of Christmas break. Yippee!
Posts
All Comments
