Saturday, December 31, 2022

Let's Wrap It Up

 It has taken me awhile to get around to wrapping up the year. 

Christmas Day was a little different this year.  Our family gathering is small to begin with--just us, Aaron, Christa and four grandkids. This year, Ella was sick and Christa had to stay home with her. We really missed them.

One of the first things that happened when the rest of the family came over in mid afternoon was that Gabe wanted to show us the gift Ella had given him. It was something that looked like a ball, with a launcher. It shot up in the air, and then a parachute opened up. It worked great the first time. And then it got stuck in the magnolia tree in the front of the house. Not a problem, said Mark, Aaron, Levi and Gabe. We will just throw something up and knock it out of the tree. 

The first thing that was thrown up in the tree was a football. It got stuck. They started gathering other things to toss up in the tree, confident that each one would knock the other things down. In turn, each thing they tossed up into the tree also got stuck. Charlotte and I were quite amused. 

Things caught in the tree...

They ended up getting a 10-foot ladder, but Aaron couldn't quite reach it. So they got two painting pole extensions and screwed them together. Still not long enough. 

They ended up taping a third extension rod and were able to get everything down.

By then it was time for a  little snack. It's kind of hard to see, but I tried to spell the word "JOY" with the cheese and the hummus in the middle. 
We opened up stocking stuffers. Normally just the kids have something in their socks, not much--we don't do a lot for Christmas. They always have Bombas socks, and this year I bought some unusual candy from a store at the coast. 

Aaron, Christa, Mark and I never exchange gifts. Which always suits me fine in theory. Until Christmas actually rolls around and I always wish I had just a little something to unwrap. So this year, we decided on a stocking stuffer, $20 limit. We were each given a letter of the alphabet--I used a highly scientific random letter generator (letters tossed in a brown paper bag...). Aaron and Christa ended up with A and I; Mark and I had H and K. The item could either begin with the letter, or come from a store that began with that letter. And we were quite loose with interpretation of said  letter.

Mark received Adidas flip flops. 
I received Icebreakers (I usually have a container in my purse for the kids) and Inappropriate socks (because of the boob drawings...)
Christa is a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan and Mark was able to find a Kansas City Kingdom mug, some Kettle chips, and some Kind bars.
I got Aaron two tickets for a walking scavenger Hunt around some of the buildings downtown, and gave him my grandfather's Harmonica. 


It was fun, we had to be a little creative, and I hope we do it again next year. 

Then it was time for dinner. I'm super happy with the Christmas tree napkins that I made this year, even though everyone seemed a little hesitant to use them, I guess because they were just too cute. :)


We always do a little scavenger hunt to prolong gift opening. This year we took pictures of things around the house, enlarged a portion, and used them as clues around the house. Figure out what the picture is, find the next clue... It's funny how different things look when you see just a small portion of something.






Aaron and Christa got Mark and me a t-shirt that says grUber. We always joke that we run a nonprofit business--Grandpa and Grandma Uber--driving grandkids to and from places they need to be--a highly unprofitable business in terms of money but highly profitable in terms of time spent with them. Now that Charlotte has her license, we will be losing some of our driving gigs and we are both sorry about that. 
And there you have it: Christmas 2022.











5 comments:

05 08
Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said... #

Oh, grUber is such a clever name and the shirt is perfect. I'm sorry to hear that Ella and Christa couldn't join you. And I was chuckling at the story of how much stuff got stuck in the Magnolia tree. :)

Deb Cox said... #

What a great wrap up for 2022 Cindy. Thanks for sharing once again. I like your idea for the $20. gift exchange. Very clever and definitely "high tech". (-: Hope your family members are on the mend. It is so disappointing to miss them at the holidays. Best of the New Year wished upon you and your lovely family Cindy. Cheers.

Rochelle aka Bella Quilts said... #

Wonderful post for Christmas. I laughed at the tree dilemma. Such a great story and so much fun to watch the efforts of all the guys. The snacks look great and the creativity that went into those $20 gifts was interesting. Happy new year to you and yours.

FlourishingPalms said... #

How lovely. You-all are sure creative when it comes to coming up with a way to swap gifts, and for a sort of in-the-house treasure hunt. Those photos are intriguing. I really like your t-shirts, though I don't envy you doing all that driving. What a great family gathering you enjoyed. Sadly, I don't have any family pictures to share in my blog posts.

OPQuilt said... #

Very fun--right down to the two different photographs. And then the 70th birthday party photograph--sounds like you have fun when you need it! And now I'm wanting captions underneath the scavenger hunt photographs, telling me what they were...like the red sparkly picture.
Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!