4th Annual Tacky Christmas Sweater Party

Once again, we were able to host our annual tacky sweater party at our house with our friends, and it was so much fun! We always wait until the last minute to buy our sweaters and I swore this year that I wouldn't do that, but of course I did. A few days before our party, I went to the Alabaster Thrift Store and I was so surprised when I got there and saw 3 full racks of tackiness waiting for me! I actually had a hard time deciding what to get for me and Robert so I called him and described the sweaters that I found. He told me "you don't sound very enthused about those sweaters, they must not be tacky enough". I had to remind him that while I was looking for the tackiest sweaters out there, there were people in there looking at the same racks as me seriously shopping for what they thought was a beautiful sweater. It's hard to laugh at how tacky a sweater is when an old lady is standing next to you looking at the same thing saying "oh that is just beautiful!". Even after describing them, I had a hard time deciding so I got 3 (which turned out great because Martha had a tacky party too so we just gave her the 3rd sweater). My sweater was black with a Christmas tree design on the front made out of presents, balls, and other things with leopard print on them! Yes, I said leopard print! What in the world does that have to do with Christmas? Robert's was very tacky. It had a very feminine collar and lots of "pretty" Christmas items on it. It was a big hit!
Our theme for dirty Santa this year was board games and alcohol. We had so much fun with that theme last year that we decided to do it again. Of course all the alcohol was liquor and I don't drink liquor so I thankfully got a board game. I think next year if we do that same theme, I'm going to bring wine just so I know I will end up with something I would drink. There wasn't as much stealing this year as in year's past, but we still had a blast. I don't know how we do it, but we managed to cram about 25 people in our little house. Thankfully we have such a huge kitchen. Here are some pictures from the party this year.

 Everybody hanging out before Dirty Santa

 Moonshine cherry bombs! No thank you. I can't believe so many people had one. And somebody left them in our freezer.

 Paul, Robert and Steven showing off their tackiness.

 Robert and Lisa

 Dirty Santa time!

 Everybody with their gifts!

 Showing off our tacky sweaters!

 Everybody sharing their gifts.

 Our attempt at a good girls picture. (Thanks Carl)

 All the guys

 The traditional jump picture! (all the new guys had no idea what was going on!)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

 I usually go to Walgreens to make our Christmas cards but after looking at their crummy selection, I decided to try Snapfish and Shutterfly. Snapfish will send your cards to Walgreens for pick-up which is great since there is no shipping. However, they have the same crummy cards as Walgreens. So I decided to go with Shutterfly. They had a much better selection and were actually cheaper than Snapfish even after shipping. The only downfall, we have to wait for our cards. So until then, here's a preview.

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Helena Christmas Parade 2011

This year was our first year to go to the Helena Christmas Parade and we had so much fun! There were a ton of people there but thankfully we were able to walk to the parade since it was right outside of our neighborhood. Since we had never been before, we weren't really too sure of the best place to watch it, but I think we ended up with a pretty good spot. I think we only missed 1 float. My parents came to watch it with us and so did Will and his 2 cousins McNeil and Alexander. It's so nice that Bryson lives so close to his cousin so they can enjoy these things together. At the very beginning of the parade, all the firetrucks and police cars rode through with their sirens on. Bryson did not like this at all but I can't say I blame him because it was really loud. I think Bryson's favorite float was of course Santa, but everybody (grown-ups and children) had fun catching all the candy. I definitely think this is something that we will do every year and hopefully be able to do it with our family. Here are a few pictures of our fun time at the parade.

 Ready for the parade to start!

 Bryson enjoyed all the candy that was being thrown, especially the suckers.

 Bryson wanted to sit with his Uncle "Obbie" during the parade.

 Here comes Santa!

 Bryson's first look at Santa!

 He was amazed to see Santa!

 He was sad to see Santa go

Bryson and Will enjoying their candy after the parade.