The Jam Made it to Virginia

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I should have been documenting this jam adventure for the past  13 years.  Better late than never!  This is the zucchini marmalade that our neighbor, Lezlee Whiting, bought at the Holly Fair in 2001.  She did it to be nice to a lady who was not selling many of her goods!  (It's obvious why!  Does this even sound appealing!)  Anyway, her kids vetoed eating the jam that year and we were very surprised to find it wrapped and under our Christmas tree that year.  Needless to say, this began the annual tradition of the "jam exchange."  The following year, we found a tricky way to hide the jam in a secretive package and slip it unnoticed under their tree so that it was usually the last present found and unwrapped.  It has made it to Texas when Dayton was serving his mission and he carried it around for 10 months.  It was the first thing he pulled out of his suitcase.  He said, "I knew I had to bring it back."  It made it to Bo's mission in California and again....he brought it faithfully home.  This year, it was time to get it back in the Whiting's possession but they were going to be in Virginia!  That posed a problem, but only for a moment.  Shirlene was brilliant enough to think of getting Phillip and Lindsey's address and mailed the jam to Virginia just in time for their Christmas arrival.  Here is Suzie and Addison proudly showing the jam!  We are sure that they will bring it safely back in their suitcase so that its adventures can continue!

Fiesta Group Shot

 

 

Christmas Eve Fiesta

This year's Christmas party was a fiesta theme filled with food, fun and luminaries!

 

The Whitings were actually flying to Virginia this year and so we invited a new family to take their place.  The Smoot's had their initiation to the 2013 Whiting Christmas Party held annually at the Law's House.  (I really hope they can keep all of these details straight!)
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People came dressed up in their best fiesta attire.  Mark and Rhonda Dennis came as American tourists in Mexico.  That's why they stood out so starkly to the rest of us!  ha ha

Our kids voted to do the same tournaments that we had done last year and so everyone was a part of fooseball, Just Dance and ping pong tournaments.  The Just Dance is by far the most entertaining!

 

 

 
Jessica blamed her fooseball loss on the fact that our table is exactly opposite of hers?  I'm just thinking that they must have put theirs together exactly wrong because every fooseball table I have seen has been just like this.  Jessica may need to double check her instruction book!  :)

 

This Just Dance dual was almost scary!

 

 

In the end, Mariah beat me out and a few others.  She became the Just Dance Champion.
Cado won the ping pong tournament and Bo won the fooseball.  (He still cheated when he played me!  That's the only reason he made it that far).  Nevertheless, it was a Law Sweep and we hope our guests will not think that we rigged it!

We had the traditional White Elephant gift exchange.  Nate got some nice license plates.  Carrie got her old boots back.

I finally got rid of the old fax machine that has been sitting in storage for many years.

 

The hot item of the night was the batman piggy bank.  I'm not even sure who finally ended up with it.

Fortuately the zebras were a close second and appeased Kionah after losing the batman bank.

And, it was quite fortunate that Bo got the John Wayne toilet paper holder and Cado got the John Wayne toilet paper!

All in all, it was a great night with great friends celebrating our Savior's birth.

Christmas Eve Prep

I had the best Christmas Eve help today.  (Dave's talk to the kids the previous night might have helped).  But, we had a Mexican Fiesta to prepare for and everyone chipped in like troopers.  Bo made his "famous chicken tacos" with three types of guacamoli. 

Cado made the Cafe Rio rice.

And all of them helped get the luminaries ready for the big event.  I only saw Cado burn his hand once, so it pretty much was a great success!

He Did It!

Cado cleaned his room Christmast Eve Day and found his long, long, long lost quarter collection from Lehi.  He had is about halfway filled and decided that he wanted to find all of the quarters...that day!  Well he went through everybody's money jars and much to my surprise, he found the missing quarters he needed.  Now he says he wants to start collecting the National Monument quarters!  Well that should be good for about the next 15 years as well!

 

 

 

Cookies For Santa

We invited our cute 7 year old neighbor over to help make cookies for Santa.  She was so excited she just cracked us up! 

Lexie was right in the mix of things and most of the things landed on the floor and on her face.  Needless to say, she was a messier cook than Mariah!

By the time they were done they had 4 pans of adorable gingerbread cookies all ready for Santa and Lexie went home a very happy girl.