Homeless Lasagna

Our Small Group decided we would make Lasagna for Dinner Sunday night.  We mad e an extra pan and made up 10 "to go plates" and loaded them and a carton of cigarettes in a Destination Downtown Tote and hiked all over downtown searching for the homeless to give them to.  We walked up to the Commons, over to Riverwalk, almost all the way down the riverwalk, down to pizza joint, back up broad almost to the Disco Tech - still no homeless.  Our feet were beginning to get sore so we loaded up in two cars to look that way.  We went to 3 gas stations and finally found one man on a bike that we had seen downtown before - he is very nice and never asks for anything.  He was very excited about the lasagna and we were very excited that we had found someone to enjoy it.  We drove around for about another hour and finally decide we would leave the other nine plates on a bench and hope they were found.  After hanging out for a bit Jim left to take the long trek across the street to the Whites Building.  He spotted 3 homeless guys and told them about the dinners - they gladly grabbed one and one guy took the rest to give to his buddies.  Moral of the Story - the homeless problem Downtown is not as bad as seems :-)

The 3rd Annual Century House Christmas Party

     The Monday before Christmas on our 2nd floor we held our 3rd Christmas Party since buying the building downtown.  Ben & Josh fried 2 Turkeys as usual and everyone brought yummy side dishes and desserts.  We had almost 40 people at the party this year - very exciting!  but we ran out of turkey - next year we will have to go up to 3.  After dinner we played the White Elephant Game - there were lots of awesome gifts - for instance Wes & Sarah brought 2 live Goldfish they had named Ben & Claire, There was a Nerf Gun, a Spring Action Spoon to flick your food further, etc.  Some of the most fought over items were a Cracker Barrel Gift Certificate, Starbucks Gift Card, and some passes for Bowling.  I got some yummy gourmet Pretzels & Popcorn from Blue Magnolia.  It was a lot of fun and I can't wait til next years party!

Five Christmases 2008 - The Year of the Stomach Virus

Christmas Eve:

We always have a party with the whole family Christmas Ev

e at my parents house.  We have party food, eggnog (the real deal), & subs.  We have a Christmas Carol Singalong - Aunt Linda plays Piano and we all sing along.  We have a reading of the Christmas story and then its Bunko Time.  Bunko is a very noisy game with our family everyone is shouting out things to make the dice roll they way they want them - like ENERGY or MONEY, RING THE BE

LL or DON'T RING THE BELL :-)

Christmas Morning with my Parents:

Ben at I go over to my Parents around 8am to see what Santa left us and Open presents from them.  We usually have to go upstairs and come down so they can get a picture of us pretending like we live upstairs i guess - we didnt have to do it this year for the first time I think.  Mind you Ben and I are both very sick - we both have stomach viruses - yuck!  We opened presents and then headed upstairs to take a nap until time to be at our next Destination.  Uncle Allen & Aunt Linda always come over for Breakfast (Breakfast Casserole, Homemade Biscuits, & Cinnamon Rolls).  Sadly Ben and I could not partake.

Timmy & Keirsten:

We went over to Ben's ex-step dads house to give Timmy & Keirsten their Christmas presents.  Timmy was getting an Ipod & a Portable DVD player for Christmas so we got him a DVD of the Mummy & an Itunes Gift Card.  Timmy had to open his Ipod first so that the Itunes card would not give away the surprise.  He was so excited it was like a Americans Funniest Home Video Clip.  He went crazy screaming & shaking "I got an Ipod" over and over.  It was so funny!

Grandmamas House:

We were supposed to be at Grandmama's House at 2pm for Christmas Lunch but after going to see Timmy & Keirsten we went home to take a nap and overslept.  We woke up at 3pm and rushed there - they were still eating :-)  We sat in the den while everyone finished up and then we played the White Elephant Game - I got 2 muffin tins and some muffin mix and Ben got a Gift Card to Best Buy.  Everyone Opened their gifts from Grandmama and watched her open all her gifts.  Then we got our stockings - which is always a favorite because there is always a check.  I was starting to get a hunger headache so I figured I better eat something before I got a headache on top of the stomach virus.  I had a banana, a roll, and a piece of turkey.

Grandmothers House:

We went to Grandmothers House to exchange gifts with her.  She had made lots of snack foods - mini quiche, quesadilla, taquitas and custard pie.  The only thing i thought I might be able to hold down was a piece of custard pie.  Grandmother gave us a big basket of fruit and a check.  

After our big day - we went home around 8pm and went to Bed.