Kemme Christmas

Are you still reading? Are you exhausted from all the Christmas festivities? Hang in there, we are almost finished. As soon as we arrived we settled into the cozy sectional leather couch downstairs across from the tree. It is my favorite couch out of all 3 homes. No lie.

I found my same spot and wrapped a blanket around my lap. We decided to start a new tradition of reading a new Christmas book each year. We brought the first one. It is called, "The Mansion". It is a lovely story about an older man that gave his money to charities for gain. He wanted everyone to know how generous he was. He has a dream and is surprised to find that in heaven he is not given a mansion but instead a shack because of his actions on earth. It was a wonderful book with a great message and beautiful illustrations and Anth was a wonderful narrator.

We decided we wouldn't exchange gifts between siblings this year. Mostly because we pick names on the Lyman side and we normally end up picking someone from that family that we would pick from the Kemme side. So instead we did gifts for John and Jolene and called it good. We got them tickets to the Forgotten Carol play which they attended a week ago. Nothing to unwrap on Christmas but I hear they enjoyed the date night together.

Check it out! I got a plant. Zoom in though. I love this plant (as made apparent by the twinkle in my eye). Jolene has this same plant on her table and I always have to resist the urge to pop the little round pea like leaves. I have mentioned numerous times how much I love the odd little thing. I was excited to get my own plant. I hope I don't lose control and pop it to death.
Anth got...well I am not sure what they are. I think they are fishing reel covers. When this went down I must have been playing with the plant. In the green box was some cash for home stuff. Have you caught on to the gift theme this year? House.

Random photos of the treat spread, the beautiful tree. Pops (Anths adorable Grandpa) playing ping pong and Mike lookin like a thug with his blanket and gift. You rollin Mike.
Dinner this year had a theme. Asian. Anthony of course made his voice heard. He is really into Asian food right now. So, a couple days before I made ham fried rice (for the first time ever) and froze it. It turned out pretty good. I also made dessert empenadas "(spelling?). Jolene made yummy lemon chicken. It was a  delicious meal.

Yeah....this happened. Check out that volume though!
No, we did not go cave exploring. Instead we turned off all the lights and played hide and seek with the two boys and.....the 7 adults.. I am not a great hider.We played 4 rounds. I will confess and say that I only had 2 hiding spots. Yeah. I am not great. But, I can proudly proclaim that I was never found first. Nailed it! Semi good spots included: Shower and closet behind the old prom dresses. 30 seconds just isn't long enough for me.

After running around in the dark we called it a night and collapsed in bed. Christmas festivities had ended.

I feel this year went a lot smoother than most. I normally cry out of exhaustion during travel time between one of the homes. Maybe I am just more mature or maybe I have just learned to cope and organize things better. Probably all of the above. Regardless, we had a good time at the Kemme home. Thanks for all you do for us.

P.S To those wishing to blackmail me with the headlamp photo:DON'T!