Flagler Family {in Thailand}

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Soup & Salad Christmas Party 12-20

An annual Tyndall tradition is the Soup & Salad Christmas Party. I believe we started hosting them in 2000 after promising to carry on the tradition for some family friends who moved out of state. The food is simple: soup, salad, bread and some desserts laying around. Kind of a nice break from all the heavy holiday foods.

Here is a picture of my Mom, the hostess. This year we had chili, bean soup and loaded potato soup. Couple of salads, couple types of bread.

Mark & Matt

Gail & Dad

Laura & Katie

Me & Steven

Steph (and our niece in her belly!) and Mark

Time to eat!

After eating, we then play the traditional games. The first game is the White Elephant Dice game. All the gifts start out in a big pile, and everyone rolls the die in their turn. When someone gets doubles, they can choose a White Elephant gift and then roll again. (Matt got to roll 4 times in a row this year!) Once all the gifts are chosen, we set a timer for about 20 minutes and continue rolling. This forces people to steal gifts from each other. Usually, gifts that are wrapped funny or feel funny are stolen the most. There is no limit of how many times something can be stolen--as long as it's done before the timer goes off. It's funny because a lot of times the people who get a lot of presents in the first round get all their gifts stolen in the second round. This year was no different! I had like 4 gifts in the first round and ended up with none by the end of the game.

Mom rolling the dice.

Stealing!

Hoping for doubles...

Once the timer goes off, people open their gifts one at a time. This one of Mom's is a rerun and has been to MANY of the Soup & Salad parties over the years.

Mark's is a new one.

Laura reading the story.

The next game is the Night Before Christmas game. Usually, Valerie reads it which is always enjoyable because she's quite dramatic. This year, Valerie couldn't be with us, so Laura rose to the challenge. But this year, we read 'Redneck Night Before Christmas' just to change it up a little. For the game, everyone starts with a wrapped Christmas decoration in their hands. While the story is being read, every time the word 'and' is read, you pass the decoration to the person on the left. Once the story is over, you get to keep the decoration you are holding. (We sometimes have to do some swapping to make sure people don't end up with the decoration they brought.) This way, even if you didn't score an awesome White Elephant gift, you get to go home with something nice.

Steph sporting some Christmas cheer!

The Soup & Salad Christmas party is a favorite. This year, we definitely had less people than usual, but it was still a lot of fun to be with everyone who was there. And we had a new guest, so we got to explain all the normal traditions. We didn't have it at all last year because of some family issues we were going through. That made this year even more special! Thanks for having it again this year, Momma!

Community Group Christmas Party 12-19

We had a wonderful Christmas celebration the Sunday night before Christmas with our Community Group. We had yummy snacks and hung around for awhile then did a White Elephant gift exchange (Chinese Auction Style). Then we played a ridiculous game of charades, where certain people had to act out embarrassing things like 'gynecologist'. I hate charades, but enjoyed it that night since those types of games can be fun with people that you really love.

We were greeted by Lauren and the Christmas princess herself, Allie.

Lauren and Matty

Me with the Allie girl. What a cutie!

Madison very pleased after somehow successfully acting out M.C. Hammer's 'You Can't Touch This'

The Gals at the Party... missing several from our normal group.

The guys at the party. Almost all the guys were there.

Our White Elephant scores: A Harry and the Hendersons DVD and a Costco-style giant box of microwave popcorn (half full). The popcorn may have been re-gifted at the next Christmas party... :)

Random Photo, Take 26

Photo 25 was March 15, 2008 at the rehearsal dinner for Dad & Gail's wedding. It was an oyster roast at Steph & Mark's house. This is Grandpa Flagler showing CJ the ropes. I love this picture.

Here's 26...

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Random Photo, Take 25

Pic 24 was New Year's 2006. I was in Uz, but Ginger, Alicia, and Andrea were at my Mom's house for New Year's. They dressed up Tori. I love this picture. Happy New Year!

Here's #25.