Grab Baggin

Holiday family sharing can be hard sometimes I think. But guess what? Ryans family is so huge (and getting hugerer) that long ago, they decided to have a big family Christmas party, on whatever random weekend in December works for everybody.. This is great news for 2 reason.. 1. (and most importantly) we get to have a Christmas celebration with all of Ryans family. Like I said in my last post, they are seriously a blast. Reason number 2. (and not in a super bratty way) we get to be wherever I want to be on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!! Whether it be down in Cedar with my moms family. Emery with my dad's family, or just home with our family.. This year I opted for the latter. I think I will from this point forward. Traveling just adds so much stress to an already intense time.
Geez, I suck at staying on track.. Here are the details of our Pond Christmas Party.
1. Held at the ever gracious Brad & Julies.
2. Delicious Cafe Rio burritos made by my very domestically gifted sister in law.
3. My husband was not there. He was on a business trip in 85 degree Florida.
4. After each gift was opened all of the little kids would chant hug! hug! hug! hug! I'm not going to lie.. It made for a few awkward situations. :)
5. Grab Bags.. 24 people 24 randomly stuffed bags. Everyone in the family, (mostly Scott) saves junk, literally junk, throughout the year. Then Scott and a few helpers evenly distribute the junk into bags. All the bags are placed in the middle of the room, and on the count of 3 you grab whatever bag is catching your fancy. Holy cow if there are not some funny things in those bags. There is a dog collar that scroungy Scott took off of a dead dog on the side of the road. No, I'm not kidding. That thing just keeps making it's rounds. You can also end up with some cool stuff. Scott works for Nu Skin, so he rounds up some pretty quality stuff throughout the year to toss in the grab bags. The whole family absolutely loves this tradition. There is not one person that doesn't dig through their bag like a little kid on Christmas to see what hilarious thing they got that year. A highlight this year was skin colored fat suits that someone donated. They were super entertaining. You can also barter for something that catches your eye from across the room.. For instance, I gave up 2 note pads, and 1 Old Navy flag shirt for 2 Nu Skin lip glosses. Not to shabby. Ones persons trash is always another persons treasure. :)
6. Ry's family had a rather acute family jolt a little earlier in the year. Being together at Christmas and feeling the love and support that feeds a family was nothing short of spiritual. Times of hardship really show family ties.. It's a benefit of trials..
7. There was a really bad storm, and I was super scared, and brave Dave and Kalei had to drive my car to Logan and back for me.. I had to put my head in Tatum's lap, and made her tickle my back the whole time so I wouldn't have a come apart. Poor Tatum..

That's all for this years Pond Party.

Virgina & Aaron Hug! Hug! Hugging! it out
Aaron doing a table spin dance.. of some sort
Tatum's grab bag poncho