Family walks

We took a couple of walks together.  The fresh air is so good for a soul!  Having a swing in the woods is a plus!

  

 Another day we went to the college to walk.  There were some squabbles among the children and we needed to get out and get fresh air.  Amazing what a nice walk will do for attitudes!  Plus we told them that if there were complaints, they wouldn't be able to go to Braum's afterwards!

Josh and Staci decided to do a run.

Walking really helps to lighten the spirit, doesn't it?

 The one grandson throwing a dirt clod at the 4 granddaughters.

 They were on their 2nd loop around and joined back up with us.  This trail is 1 1/2 miles.

We made a stop at Ruzen's floral so Jill could pick up her Christmas candles for next year.  They have the best candles! 

 Braums!

That was New Year's Eve night.  At 9 pm we declared it "Happy New Year's!" (it was in Greenland and Brazil) and went to bed.  The next day, the families would be heading back to their states.

Tea parties and catastrophes

A few other happenings during our Christmas time with the family were:

A tea party

 Late night discussions

 Piano duets and song writing

 Horse play

A leak in the tub pump that led to flooding in the basement!!!

Luckily, people were in the family room in the basement and noticed the water gushing out of the ceiling!  If everyone had been upstairs....  

There were a whole lot of buckets and mopping involved.

Some crafting 

 Meal fixing - Al and I fixed the requested sukiyaki meal.

Each couple took turns planning a meal and fixing it.  They sent me their grocery list and I purchased all the ingredients beforehand.  It is so nice to have their help!  I don't do a lot of cooking anymore, so it is almost overwhelming when the whole family comes so I am very grateful for their offer to do this!  We had lasagna rolls one night, ham and mashed potatoes another and soup on another evening.

Family games

It won't do to be bored.

 So we played lots of games - like "Nerf Wars"

Another game was the "Whisper game" - while one person wore head phones playing LOUD Christmas music, the other person was given a phrase to whisper.  The one with the head phones had to try to lip read and guess what the other person was saying.

 :"Kiss me under the mistletoe, baby!"

The game that was the biggest hit was "Murder in the Dark"!  We turned off all the lights in the house except for some night lights.  Claire picked the person who would be the "it" who would search out his victims in the dark.  If he sliced your throat, you had to "die".  Once another person came across the dead person(s), he would yell "murder in the dark!"  Lights would be turned on and accusations would fly to try to figure out who the real murderer was.

The murderer can drag his victims to an out of the way place to make it harder for the others to find them.  In fact, one time, Jill was able to kill everyone before anyone was found!  So no one yelled "murder in the dark!"  She won!

This game was called Taco, cat, goat, cheese, pizza.  Here we are acting out being a unicorn.

 A table game called "The Mind" was pretty fun.

 This next game is hilarious.  Doesn't have a name, that we know.  Sophia found it on Pinterest.  You stand in a circle and everyone looks down.

You decide while you are looking down who you will look up at.  On the count of 3, everyone looks up.  

If you happen to be staring at the same person, you both are out of the game.  It continues until all but 1 or 2 are out, depending on if you start with an even number of people or odd number.

Such fun times!!