Annual Daugs Family Christmas party~ ..... Unfortunately, after all the hard work, fun, family time and dozens of pictures, my SD card decided to malfunction and die. It is ruined for some reason, so I am so sad that I am unable to retrieve all the pictures of the many, many things that went on as well as Ada's 5th grade program and Christmas pictures in front of the tree before church. There were some good ones too!!! I guess I will be buying myself a new SD card for Christmas.
It was our turn to host. The church house was booked, so we held the event in our home. We counted 53 people in attendance, ranging from a few months old to Grandpa Daugs. The festivities began at 3:00 with a craft for the kids. Ammon cut out wood Christmas trees and I painted them so that they could decorated them with misc. beads and beaded garland. I thought of that idea from a piece that my grandpa Darrell made when he was ill with Alzheimers. I hang it up every year and it helps me remember him and my Eborn heritage.
We ate delicious soups, salads and multiple desserts. There was plenty to be had and it was delicious.
I organized the parties details, activities and games. Ammon was on set up and clean-up. It worked out great.
We started off with "minute to win it". I had all those that wanted to play, put their names in a bucket. I drew out 10 kids and 10 adults. I then had them split evenly 5 kids and 5 adults on each team.
I organized ten different events, giving each member on the team a chance to do one event. The team with the most wins received prizes.
There were some fun photos of the games. I am so sad that those are lost. Hopefully their memories aren't.
After "Minute to Win It", I tried to keep things running smoothly and transitioned right into "doubles". We wrapped a present within a present really well with tape. Inside was an envelope with ten one dollar bills. Everyone was sitting in a HUGE circle. I had two sets of dice being rolled in the circle at a time. If the roller got doubles, they would yell "doubles" and run to the center of the circle, put on snow mittens and then try opening the present. They had to stop and trade once another person rolled doubles. It got pretty intense. The person that rolled the doubles wanted to try hard and fast to get into the present to the money, so they worked frantically, only to be pushed aside and another double roller takes over soon after.
Judy was the big winner and we had a lot of fun watching the "competitiveness" of those trying to get the money. She even accidentally ripped all of the money as she was trying to open the envelope. It was pretty funny.
Again... trying to keep order, I quickly transitioned into handing out numbers to each person for the white elephant game. The presents were place in the center and we began. With close to 50 people, the game ended up taking a while with all the trades and steals, but it was still fun.
Transitioning once again...... ( I think I have learned from working at the school that things work better if you are prepared and ready to move on to the next thing so that the attention and focus isn't lost).........I starting sing "Dashing through the snow"..... We sang a few more upbeat Christmas songs. Don wanted to share his thoughts, so we stopped for a moment. I felt that it was appropriate to then keep the calm, somber feeling and start the "Mary Did You Know" video that my dad gave me a few years back. It was appropriate and we needed to end on a note of spirituality and peace. It was a slideshow of Christs' life from birth on. It was short enough to keep the attention of even the little ones. It was neat knowing that just a few minutes prior, the house was full of noise and laughter and then it calmed to a stillness and little noise. The movie ended and I started singing "Silent Night". We all sang together and then wished each other a Merry Christmas. Most of the family went on their way. We were fortunate to have Naomi and her sweet family stay with us, so we cleaned up and then stayed up late playing games and talking. Rachel, Miriam and Makayla, Kristin, Jake and kids stayed to visit and play with the kids for a while also. Naomi, Nate, Addison, Ammon, Avery, Ada, Makayla and I played a few games, laughing and being our usual crude selves during games. It was fun having Makayla hang out with us. She is a freshmen in college and probably thought we were weird when we decided to go to bed before midnight.
I feel that it was a success. Ammon and I were told by Logan at least three times that "this party was way better than the Jones party." So, for at least one, it was fun. I made someones Christmas fun and memorable at least. It is fun to have a different family responsible each year because we all have different ways to celebrate.
My only complaint was that I lost all of my photos, which for me is a really big deal and that my feet and legs hurt really bad that night. I had been standing and going all day long wearing boots ( not a good idea!)
Thanks to everyone for coming. We were sad that some were unable to make it, but honestly.... you probably wouldn't have been able to fit anyway. Next time it is our turn, I will have to book the church months in advance at the rate we are growing.
In attendance:
Don, Jill, Kick and Norman
Kim, Boyd, Nathan, Heather, Aaron, Nora, Stella, Mable
Judy, Lance, Josh, Caleb, Aimee, Lisa, Kristin, Jake, Rylee, Ryan, Matt, Amber, Corbin, Spencer, Sydney
Rachel
Mike, Maluari, Makayla, Malachi, MariAnn
Ammon, Alison, Addison, Avery, Ada
Miriam, Darin, Logan, Ellie
Nate, Christy, Wyatt, Shay, Clint, Cole
Naomi, Nate, Aleena, Bailey, Cutler
We missed everyone from Shari and Larry's family. They all live far. We also missed Amy and Bryan and Sydney.
Merry Christmas all. Thank you for coming and I hope it will be a memory of Christmas that will be kept and cherished. If any of you have pictures, please forward them to me.... thanks.
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