Family Fun

So last night we had a family get together at our house to celebrate our finishing our backyard fence. We had the sought after hotdogs and hamburgers which always goes over well. The boys were yelling "Nana, look at me." and the same to great gma and gpa. They bounced as high as they could on the trampoline and swung as high as they could on the swings just to see who would watch their successes. It was great to have everyone over but I won't lie. I stressed all day about what I needed to do to the house to clean it up and get ready. My heart had to have been going a mile a minute just with anxiety all because it has been so long since I have even been able to clean the house let alone have family over for dinner or anything. We looked at pictures from Nana (Chris's mom) and Gma's (Chris's Gma, the kids great gma) vacation to Mexico on a cruise ship. This is the second cruise they have gone on together and since Gma is 80 years old this is an awsome thing. We are so lucky to have this family and especially to have Great Grandparents around to play with our kids. Not only are they around but they are very active in the kids lives and play with them often. I never even knew my grandparents let alone my great grandparents so to me this is very special.

So, in the midsst of all the play, picture peeking and talking we had a blast. Cia (Chris's sister) and I planned our shopping trip for Santa Bingo. This is a long standing family tradition every Thanksgiving. Each year the parents go out and find inexpensive fun things for everyone and put them in a huge pile. We then play Santa Bingo which is an old game that is obviously Christmas themed. We play until everyone has gotten a bingo and then start over again until all of the prizes are gone. The best thing about Santa Bingo is the memories. We used to do it at the Cabin (Gma and Gpa's) and we would have Gpa calling out the tiles. He of course would make funny comments, make up tiles that didn't exhist and funny things like that. It was always a time of laughter and fun. The last 3 years we have been unable to do Santa Bingo because we have not been at the cabin for that long. 3 years ago Chris's Aunt got cancer and very sick. It began to be too much for her to house the 30 plus family members that would cram themselves into her kitchen to play and eat Thanksgiving Dinner. This year we can't go to the cabin but we decided that in light of Sandi's passing (after a 3 year battle with the cancer she lost the battle and passed on) we would bring back the family tradition and begin to play again. This year we are changing the rules and instead of playing and picking prizes for ourselves we are going to play for a family member. We are going to draw names each game and we will play for someone else and pick their prizes for them.

So, anyone looking for a new or fun Christmas tradition or Thanksgiving tradition should consider Santa Bingo. There are a lot of ways that you can do this game and it is a lot of fun. Many of the people in the family will love it and cherish the memories forever.