Christmas Eve Fun!

Every year, John and I throw a Christmas Eve party at our house with our family. We decided to start out our day with a family outing to the mountains to find the snow for some good ol' fashin sledding!

Jessica catching air for the first time... I think?

So we got home around 330 and prepared for the festivities of the night with my family. Everybody had an assignment to come up with a service they could provide for another and at the end of the night they were to be auctioned off. The way to earn points for the auction was to play our fun games.

I made several Bingo cards just like this one with random pictures from things we have done throughout the year.

The kids loved them.. except for little Mason. He was sooo sad cuz he thought I was making "fun of him." I felt so bad! He ran into a cement wall and skiffed up his nose when I took that picture. : (  I felt bad. Other than that little instance, everybody had fun playing Bingo and Blackout with these cards and for each person who won, they earned 15 points.

Our 2nd game came from the Minute-to-Win-It game show on television.

If you have ever watched Minute-to-Win-It, then you know that the games they play are pretty fun but challenging. We prepared a few of those games to play.

The first game was the "Cookie Challenge."

The goal is to get the cookie from your forehead to your mouth using only your facial muscles!

Not an easy task, but so fun watching everybody try. We actually had 4 people out of the 20 that tried it make it into their mouth! Way to go guys!

Our 2nd challenge involved candy canes. You pick a partner and then using a string tied to 1 candy cane, you have to pick up 4 small candy canes alternating back and forth.

Yep! You know it! My mom and I make a great team! Woot! Woot!

Our last challenge was the "Christmas Bulbs." You take your partner and wrap a string around the 2 of you.

Then you place a bulb on the string and you have to rotate your bodies to make the bulb go around on the string all the way back to the beginning and hang it on the christmas tree to earn your points.

My 2 yr old nephew, Wyatt, and 5 yr old nephew, Mason. They did awesome and got it all the way around and on the tree. They were so cute. They make it look so easy... but it's NOT!

Kind of looks like they were belly dancing! :)

We had a great time playing games, eating, laughing, and singing!

I played the piano while Cameron played his guitar for our christimas singing pleasure! :)

Andy read us "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

followed by the Christmas Story from the Bible. It was the perfect ending to a fun night as we left with the spirit of Christmas in our hearts and our Savior's Birth on our minds this special night. The best gift we can give in rememberance of our Savior is our Service. I was so proud of my family for the acts of kindness and things they came up with to offer to others... from tutoring to babysitting and a buddy to hang out with to helping clean rooms. I love this time of year and hope that we may all remember that service is an act of kindness to be done all year long, not just at Christmas time. It's the very thing that will make your heart smile over and over again. :) Love you guys!

Merry Christmas!