White Elephant Party

Last evening we had our annual Christmas party. It was a little late so turned out to be a New Years party. Every year I choose a theme. This year was White Elephant. As you can see, we had a lot of fun. I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my cheeks. One of the games was to tear a "White Elephant" out of a piece of white paper. They turned out very interesting.


The gift exchange is always fun. This year instead of trading after the gift was open, we had the opportunity to trade gifts before they were opened. I gave this a lot of thought and figured it would be the best idea since the gifts were "White Elephant" gifts. My husband got the traveling gift. It has been past along for over 10 years now. It's first appearance was at our first White Elephant gift exchange 10 years ago when it was a yellow bee patio table ornament or candle holder. Since that time it has been many things. Always to fit the theme of the party. Below it was a snow man for last years theme of "Let it snow" below that , the theme was "WINGS". I was not able to find all the pictures but it has been many different things. A lot of work went into this years transformation into a Elephant.
Next Years theme will be "JOY TO THE WORLD"

The food table at the end of the party. You could tell we weren't hurting for food!

Fun during the gift exchange.

Gifts ranged from relish trays, body spray, a medical self-help book, Tupperware, candle holders to . . . . . .

THE BIGGEST HIT OF THE NIGHT!

The strangest "WHITE ELEPHANT" I have ever seen!

The room was roaring with laughter!

It was a very fun evening with our friends! Happy New Year to everyone, God Bless your 2011. Just like the White Elephants, we don't know what the New Year has in store for us but we do know that Jesus Loves us, died for us and will never leave us or forsake us. His word is always true and His word is the instruction book for our lives.

Christmas Eve 2010

I just thought I would share a few of the beautiful decorations at our oldest daughters home. This year we were blessed to see the decorations and trees at my parents and youngest daughters when we were there around Thanksgiving, and over Christmas at our oldest daughters home. We had a great time.

This is our youngest granddaughter, her mom knit her Christmas dress. It turned out lovely and this was her first try at knitting a dress.

Yum, yum, Christmas candy from the Christmas Eve church bag.

Here she is in her pajamas with a matching doll pajamas. All the great grandchildren got PJ's from my parents for their Christmas gift.

Chick #4 is five years old . He seemed to be the most excited about the Christmas gifts under the tree. But then when Papa tells you it is wood chips, that makes one even more excited to see if that is the actual truth!

He wasn't too overjoyed to have Nana take his picture

but he knows how much I enjoy my pictures so he tolerated it!

This is the smack in the middle child, she is 8 yr old and very proud to have a new store bought dress for Christmas.

Here she is practicing for her before the program piano solo piece,
she did a very good job playing Oh Come All Ye Faithful.

She was an Angel in the Christmas Eve children's worship service.

These are her and her dolls PJ's from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa.

The three oldest grandchildren played a Christmas Hymn before the Christmas Eve service. Our 11 yr old grandson had his memorized and we certainly enjoyed the many times he practiced and played Silent Night perfectly.

He is growing so tall and such a very handsome young man with his new black shirt.

This is our oldest granddaughter, she is 13 yr old and is wearing her wool dress she sewed for the wool fashion show and competition. It turned out just beautiful but then, about anything she wears looks marvelous on her.

She played a very lovely arrangement of Away in a Manger.

Good friends of the family also spent Christmas at our daughter and son-in-laws. This sweet little girl is only about 3 months older then out granddaughter and they got along so well. Here she was making our youngest granddaughter beautiful by brushing her hair. It was so much fun to watch the two of them play and interact. I think it would be great if they turned out being as great as friends as their mothers!

Such good friends! We enjoyed spending time with their family.

What a beautiful new Christmas dress for such a beautiful little girl.

Our five grandchildren from youngest to oldest.

OK, so its six, she is almost like a granddaughter!

I thought it was so cute that she wanted to be in the picture.

This is our whole group minus one dog, our elderly, almost 14 yr old dog

was off taking a nap and we didn't think to wake him.

It was 6 adults, 6 children and 4 dogs.
REALLY, it was great fun!

Jeff and myself with out 5 grandchildren.

Jeff and myself!

I took our daughter, son-in-law and family picture after the Christmas Eve Service.

The big church Christmas tree made a lovely setting for their family picture.

Here with our daughter on the platform, you can see how the two oldest children and her are about the same height, even a bit taller.

It wont be long and they will both be way taller then her.

The children's service was so good. Lots of singing and readers. The full gospel of our New Born King was told both from scripture and song.