Thanks to the encouragement of my cousin J, I’m back on the bandwagon of blogging! Thank you for taking the time to read and keeping in touch with what’s going on with me. Your kind words are much appreciated!

Christmas was great! Hectic as it was, it was amazing to have all the family together to make more memories. My dad had a great idea to play a family game called Growing Up. You basically just take turns telling a story about yourself growing up. I love it! We get to hear stories and share history of each others.

My dad kicked it off and told us two stories – 1 about when he was a kid and got bit by a dog, and another about him growing up with his sister. My uncle shared one about him picking flowers and giving it to my aunt that brought tears to her eyes – “who knew flowers were so powerful” he said 😂. My aunt did a funny story in Chinese opera style – who knew she had such comedic flair!? I told about my eldest sons birth. My sons each told a story, L about him making the volleyball team. M about him getting lost at Toys are Us at the mall when he was 3. Adam talked about him hetting lost as a kid and waiting by the entrance (my oldest brother had a similiar story as a kid too!). Melody told hers about getting hurt in Asia and blood flowing from her forehead. There were several others great stories, but either my over heating, old Note 4 phone was freezing and I couldn’t tape it or I was helping setup the desserts and missed it.

Since the story telling took longer we skipped the saran wrap game and saving it for Chinese New Year. We still had presents and Secret Santa to do! This year we did a Rock-Paper-Scissors to steal with max of two steals. If you lost at your attempt you had to pick from the pile. This was to save us from having people try and steal from several people. One chance only! Now if you won at your stealing, the person who lost had to pick from the pile or try and steal. The big question mark was can you try and steal your gift back? We did not address that in our initial rules and of course my oldest brother found the loop hole 😂. It’s so him. I asked my cousin Anthony to dress up as Santa again this year and my baby lost his mind! He was so happy and excited. Unfortunately my dearest grand niece did not find him exciting. She was so scared. I loved seeing my son enjoy, but I hated seeing her so scared. My poor grand niece. Hopefully next year she will also be excited. Who knows, Santa, Easter bunny and any stranger dressed up is scary. Don’t get me started on clowns!

It definitely was a family effort to make this party happen for the ~40+ people.  It is worth all the effort to have the memories, especially for my children, of having the love of family.  Many people do not get together with everyone like this.  I’m so thankful we do.  There’s only a few homes now that can accommodate everyone.  Playing host is a lot of work, and I hope that as the next generation slowly take over, we keep the tradition going.  Chinese New Year is a fun potluck cooking competition.  Hopefully, Christmas will not turn into that.  I like having turkey, ham, stuffing, etc.  I doubt we’d have all of that if this went in the way of potluck styles.  

Proposed Menu

1 – Turkey  – big bro and wife

1.a – Stuffing  & Gravy – F

2 – Ham – best bro

2.a – Potato Salad – best bro

3 – Pork with Pickled Vegetables – Dad & big bro

4 – Veg with garlic & Mushroom – Dad & big bro

5 – Deep Fried baby fishes with barter – Dad & big bro

5 –  ½ BBQ Pork – Dad

6 – 2 roast Ducks – Dad

Logistics – N, J, and K

1 – paper plates (big & small), knives & forks, serving spoons, napkins

2 – make sure there are enough chairs

3 – clean / sweep the place once over.

4 – Garbage detail

Misc. – Me and Hubby

1 – Drinks – Pop, Beer, juice, ice

2 – Desserts – Ice cream, cake

3 – Pig in a blanket and chips & Dip

Games & Entertainment – S and Me

1 – Dad wants to do funny story

2 – Youtube Karaoke (we didn’t end up doing this)

3 – Open (S setup to do Saran Wrap game. Had some fun items that adults would like to win. Wanted to stop based on when she stopped music)

For my share of the feast I bought a bunch and need to find them damn receipts. Ugh.

• Brie from Costco
• French Toast crackers
• Beer 🍻
• Water
• Pop 
  • case of coke
  • case of ginger ale
• Punch stuff from Walmart
  • 2 2-L of ginger ale
  • 2 carton orange juice
  • 2 container of cranberry juice
• Dip stuff from Walmart
  • Big jar of mayo
  • 2 500 ml of sour cream
  • 2 packages of frozen spinach
  • 1 bunch of green onions
  • 2 packages of Knorr vegetable soup mix
  • Costco bag of Ruffles chips
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 bag of baby carrots
  • 1 celery
• Appetizers from Costco
  • Pigs in a blanket
  • Mini quiches
  • Mini spanikopita
• Desserts from Costco 🎂
  • 1 red velvet cheesecake
  • 1 strawberry vanilla log

I’ve been eating way too much and as a result have had bad heart burn for a week! Need to get back on with the IF and move more.