Michigan festivities

Christmas at the Shell's
Tara & Jason
Jason sporting his Christmas vest
Our old roomies

We had a wonderful time in Michigan. Of course one of my favorite things was spending Christmas Eve at the O'Conners. If you looked up the definition of what Christmas should look like you would see a picture of Christmas Eve at the O'Conners. It is honestly hard to describe all of the events that take place without portraying a picture of a bunch of loonies (sorry guys). It really is a priceless tradition and I truly look forward to it all year long.

The night starts off with approximately 45 people (all aunts, uncles, first cousins and a couple of significant others). The festivities really begin when each family performs a skit. This year there was a couple of reenactments of Rudolph the red nose reindeer, family speeches and a new twist with Christmas jeopardy. Jeopardy ended with a tie between the O'Conner family and the Shells and the tie breaker consisted of the two moms having a beer chugging contest.

Christmas JeopardyThe Mom's chugging beer
12 days of Christmas
My Christmas gift.......no not from Steve......from Steve's grandparents!!!

Twiddle dee and Twiddle dum.......I mean Steve and Brad

After that we moved on to two renditions of the 12 days of Christmas. Following that, we anxiously awaited Molly (the monkeys) annual appearance with her recognition of this years Molly award. After Molly came a new addition to this year festivities and it was an elf. Unfortunately, this is one of those things that is impossible to explain. We exchanged gifts (see mine below), played the dice game and the left right game. Like I said before pictures and words do no justice for the amount of fun that we have. The infamous Elf
Part of the Elf thing that is way too hard to explain
Molly the Monkey

Overall, we had a great time in Michigan. It was great seeing family, friends, and just being in Michigan for a week. We got to spend a couple of days at my moms house in SL and do one of my favorite things..........shop. My mom and I shopped till we dropped.

Cooper gearing up to play poker

I have a new found appreciation for Florida's warm weather. It is nice not having to wear 4 layers and not having permanent goose bumps(minus this week......it is freezing).

Steve's parents backyard on Christmas morning