Holiday in Review

A lot of people are doing posts on their year in review, but since I never fulfilled my goal of blogging daily until all the holiday parties were documented, I'll just do a holiday in review.

My wonderful seeester Sara got to come into town the weekend before Christmas, so we celebrated early and exchanged sibling gifts.

jammies for her puppy!

love my gamecocks!

We also hosted a dessert party while she was home so that all our family friends could visit with her!

Next up in the holiday line-up was a bridal shower for Lindsay!!

We had a fun alternative for the bridal shower - everyone opened a random gift and then we took turns sharing with Lindsay who is was from and what is was. Such a fun idea (and who doesn't love opening a present?)!

the baby-crazed girls

And before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve and time for mass and our traditional appetizer dinner afterwards (which this year included a viewing of Jaws - never again thank you).

And last but not least, one of the most wonderful days of the year! Remember the many Klinepeter faces of Christmas morning last year? Don't worry, they were back in full force.

searching for the pickle ornament. does anyone else's family have this tradition? I love it!

had to have a little afternoon side-yard football!

And for the last hurrah of the holiday season, we hosted Christmas dinner with our wonderful family friends!

The last two pictures were during the 'name-game' (made up title - not sure the game actually has a name). It is one of the simplest - yet most entertaining games I've ever played. The concept of the game is that everyone writes down a name of someone (famous person, fictional character, family friend, anybody who would be recognized by everyone playing) and they all get put into a hat. Then a reader (who cannot participate in the game) reads out all the times twice in no particular order. After that, the names cannot be read again and everyone takes turn trying to guess who another person's identity is. If you guess their identity, they join your team. The game continues until only one person's identity is unknown - and that person is declared the winner (although everyone on that "team" tends to celebrate like they won too!).

The game really gets interesting when everyone gets stumped trying to remember someone's identity from the very beginning. It is such a fun game for groups of all sizes!!

And there you have it, holiday season 2011!!