One of the best things about Christmas is getting together with family and this year was no exception to being one of the best Christmas' ever. We decided as a family this year to move the Christmas party from Christmas day to the day after Christmas, which worked out great, plus as a bonus we through our first annual Bingo game. It ended up being a fun and exciting way to end the Christmas holiday. Our kids love to get together with their cousins, especially when they have the opportunity to exchange gifts, they look forward to giving as much as receiving.
The party started with our traditional turkey dinner prepared by Grandpa and Grandma Okerlund. The meals consists of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, beans, rolls, and Grandma's yummy three layered Christmas salad, plus lots of appetizers. There is always plenty to eat and no one ever leaves this party hungry. There is always lots of yummy pies for afterwards, but that is always comes in after the gifts are open and everyone has wound down for the day.
After dinner was served the gifts exchange began. We started off with the cousins giving to each other. McKenna received lotion, lip gloss, and a book from Kambree. Trey received a pair of the popular socks from Marshall. Ally was so excited to receive real makeup and brush set from Morgan, while Lottie received a cute outfit from Porter. Lottie gave Tara the doll Anna off of the movie Frozen, McKenna gave Brynn two necklaces, Ally gave Jaden a iTunes gift card, and Trey gave Cannon a really cute Cars puzzle set.
The kids are always spoiled at this party, especially from Grandma and Grandpa O. The always have fun opening up their surprises from them. Trey received socks, shirt, and Duck Dynasty figurines set, while McKenna received a pair of Nike lounge pants, head bands, iTunes cards. The little girls each got their own really cute book sets with a couple shirts each.
After the majority of the presents were open amongst the grandkids and cousins, we were able to present our gift from all of us kids to Grandpa and Grandma O. I was in charge of putting the gift together year and I had so much fun doing it. We gave them several gift cards, like a Visa Gift Card, Costco Gift Card, a Cabellas Gift Card, Sizzler Dining Card, Applebees Gift Card as well as a small gift basket full of goodies. The most rewarding gift though was the old window with personalized vinyl sayings on it as well as the magnetic tree with photos of all the grandkids on it.
After all the opening of the presents was done, Lottie decided she wanted to be a present. Somehow she and got Trevor into gifting, she seemed to give the gift that keeps on giving. It was fun to watch Lottie and her expression every time she was opened up!
This year we decided to start a new tradition and play bingo. This ended up being so much fun for everyone. As you can see below, there were a lot of prizes, this way everyone would walk away as a winner. Each family was to spend $30 in prizes, whether it be one big prize for $30 or numerous prizes for what ever $30 would buy. Grandpa and Grandma went above and beyond for prizes, they had prizes of all sorts of sizes, they had stuff for adults, teens, and the younger kids.
This game of bingo is a game that Tyler and Ashley have played at some of their other family parties, so they took charge of calling out the numbers and keeping everyone in line! Everyone received their own bingo card and a pen to stark keeping track. It wasn't long before Jason was the first one to callout BINGO! After that, a few more numbers were called out and soon we had several winners. We then started with new cards over and over, which made the game that much longer. The fun thing about the game was you could pick a prize from the middle or steal a gift that someone else had already been opened. Some of the prizes that kept being stolen was the large candy bags, clay pigeons, necklaces, lotions, and games. Everyone loved it!
Our little family made a haul at this year's bingo game.
It is definitely a tradition that we all vote to play every year at Christmas.
One of the best Christmas presents that we got as a family this year was a baby Erin. This little doll was born to Tyler and Ashley on December 2nd and we are so fortunate to get to spend Christmas with her. We all had to take turns holding her, fighting over who would get to hold her next!
A huge shout out to Grandpa and Grandma O for such an awesome Christmas party. We are already excited to see what next year's party will bring!
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