The Annual Oates Christmas Party

Oh I am behind on the blogging. Time to catch up. The Saturday before Christmas we gathered for the Annual Oates Christmas Party! First we gathered around the table lined with jars of things, including a jar of quarters, to test our guessing skills. There was also a very large bowl of some sort of trail mix. One of the young children that was running around perched himself on a chair and ate and ate, until he'd find something he didn't like. At that point he would spit out the offending item back into the bowl. I decided to avoid those snacks the rest of the night. Forrest and Sharon were our wonderful hosts again this year and provided a feast! We ate everything from prime rib, meatballs, shrimp, crab, chessy potatos, salads and lots of different desserts. We never go away hungry.

After dinner we tried to gather all of the grankids for a group picture. Violet short for a very small moment.

Then everything went wrong. She absolutely flipped and didn't want to sit on the stairs a moment more. I was quite worried she was going to kick another child in the head. It was somewhat embarrasing, but there wasn't too much I could do about it but remove her from the whole thing.


After the picture fiasco we all gathered in the great room. Great Grandma Oates asked Wes and I to particpate in a reading about Christ. Wes at first had declined seeing as he isn't a big religious fan, but when he realized it was going to disappoint his grandmother he decided to help out after all. We all had to be different characters from the old testament. There were about 5 of us participating. Wes in the end ending up being the most well read and acted his part fervently. It really touched Wes's Grandmother and she really had a hard time keeping herself composed after that. She misses her dear, sweet husband so much. We sang a few hymns and Great Grandma Oates's daughters gathered around her.

We then passed out gifts for the children and the adults played a few games.

Adelle borrowed Erica's camera and took pictures. Wes played along and made funny faces.

Violet played with her new goodies and really enjoyed wandering around. We kept an eye on her so she wouldn't get lost in the HUGE house. Lydia hung out because that is what twelve year olds do.

Forrest in his usual style had us play the cash game.

The counting game results were announced and I ended up winning the quarters again this year. I guess the girls will be getting their allowance in quarters again this year.

We gave kisses and hugs to everyone when the night was wrapping up. We gave extra hugs to Great Grandma Oates.

Violet found the big merry-go-round rocking horse. Wes set her on it for a bit before she got scared and wanted to get down.

It is always great to see the Oates family each year. We really should get together more often.