It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Does this guy look like someone who can be trusted? If you said no, then you are absolutely right. Not only does he enjoy being goofy like this when we are trying to take some serious pictures but he has also been known to be quite a joker when it comes to other things. Last year at Christmas time we had decided to take a family trip and so we thought it would be fun to choose family names and exchange gifts within our immediate family and we put a $10 limit on the gifts. These would be the only gifts that we would buy for Christmas. Well, we put Richard in charge of the choosing of names. He wrote out the names on pieces of paper and then went to great lengths to talk to all of us about keeping who we chose a secret so that we would all be surprised on Christmas morning. Can you tell where this story is headed? Well, of course we began to talk to each other and try to get hints about who had chosen who and do you know what we found out? All of us had chosen Richard because his name was the only one that he had written on every piece of paper. Luckily we found out about his trick within about an hour of choosing the names and so his plan was foiled. Well, we had so much fun choosing a name and exchanging gifts last year that we decided to do it again this year, but since we would be staying home and not buying any other gifts we put the limit of the gift this year at $30.

We definitely did not put Richard in charge of choosing the names this year, we aren't that slow. We got all of the money in one dollar bills so that it looked like a lot. Then we put 30 one dollar bills and a family member's name into 8 separate envelopes. We had our friend Tyler come over to officiate and be sure that everything was on the up and up. We put the 8 envelopes into a pillowcase so that it was impossible to cheat and then we took turns pulling an envelope from the pillowcase. Each person looked inside to be sure that they did not have their own name and then once everyone had chosen, the fun began.

The only rule was that you had to make sure you hadn't chosen your own name and you aren't allowed to trade names with anyone. Apparently, not everyone agrees with those rules.

As you can see we had a lot of fun choosing names and now everyone is sneaking around trying to buy a gift and get it under the Christmas tree without being discovered.

Paige was the first one in the family to have her gift bought and wrapped for her secret family member. We can't tell if her face is glowing because she is so happy or if the bright, pink wrapping paper that she chose to wrap her gift in is simply reflecting off of her face. She said she didn't care if we knew that the gift was from her because we still wouldn't know who it was for. When we saw how good her wrapping job was and all of the bows she put on and even the balloon we are all thinking just one thing, "I hope Paige chose me as her secret gift recipient." Our hope is that without all of the stress of driving around to find an endless amount of gifts that we will enjoy each other's company more and really enjoy the spirit of Christmas without getting caught up in all of the stress and worldly pressure that sometimes comes at this time of year. We hope each of you have a Merry Christmas too.