Games Galore, fitbit family challenge, and mannequin challenge

I mentioned in my last post that we had been playing a lot of games. In case you didn't believe me, here are some lists.

Our new games:
Clubs, Viticulture (seems to be Alex's favorite), The Rose King, Tenzi, Imhotep, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Fresco, Alhambra, Caverna, Castles of Burgundy card game, Puerto Rico, Treasure Hunter, Kingdom Builder with 2 expansion packs, My Village, and a Small World expansion pack.

Andrew's new games that aren't duplicates of ours:

Hey That's My Fish!, Code Names, Code Names: Pictures, Istanbul expansion pack, and Mystic Vale.

Other games we played owned by the Jamiesons, Andrew, and us:
Spector Ops, Cover Your A$$ets, Xenoshyft, Sushi Go!, Scotland Yard, Shakespeare, SeaFall (intense 15+ game series), Pinochle, 7 Wonders, 7 Wonders: Duel, Castles of Burgundy board game, Summoner Wars, Oddly Obvious, Terra Mystica, Timeline, Five Tribes, Nerts, Ashes, Zooloretto, and Steampunk Rally.

We've been keeping a master list of all games played, who won them (Alex is in the lead with 37, Andrew has 35 wins, and I'm in 3rd place with 12 wins), what the score was, and how many were playing the game. We are up to almost 100 wins on that list. My favorites of the new games I played are: Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Treasure Hunter, Kingdom Builder, Hey That's My Fish!, Cover Your A$$ets, and Shakespeare. We are having a blast.

This next week will be a big let down. My parents left this morning. Andrew, Heather, and Henry leave tomorrow. Eric and Ryan will leave on Tuesday or Wednesday (we are still looking for a ride for them, but Hannah and Alex might wind up having to take them back to Rexburg).

One way we'll be keeping close over the next while is through our Fitbit Family Challenge.

We all got fitbits for Christmas and have come up with a competition of sorts. We need to average 7,000 steps/day each month. Everyone who reaches that goal will have their name entered into a drawing, with 3 extra entries for the one in 1st place, 2 extra tickets for 2nd place, and 1 extra ticket for 3rd place. Three tickets will be drawn. The first one drawn gets $5, then $3 for the second one drawn, and the third one drawn will get $2. A name can only be drawn twice. They would then get $7 and the other name drawn would get $3.

I love that the fitbit tracks my number of steps each day, but I love even more that they "track" my sleep. I'm averaging about 45 minutes of restless sleep and one awake time each night. I wonder if I can improve that.

New Year's Eve

One night Hannah made homemade fettuccini and bruschetta!

playing Ashes (one of Alex's favorites)

Hannah and Glen made a play fort for Henry

SeaFall!

Castles of Mad King Ludwig

Sarah contemplating a move in Hey, That's My Fish!

The high school's 1st block video production class made a mannequin challenge video, then challenged the other blocks and also the school to make their own videos. Alex's class won the block challenge (the one for the video production classes) and Glen was in the school-wide challenge winner (the challenge for all classes but the video production classes). He was subbing on his prep and the sub plans had them doing this, so he got to be in it. The winners got doughnuts!

Glen's video:

Alex's class's winning video (can you spot him?):

Christmas post

First off, it was my parents' 60th wedding anniversary on the 20th. They were in Vegas at my sister's for their celebration. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Sure do love you both!

Denise and Pat made a photo mat with greetings from all of us!

If I had to pick 3 words to describe the last few days, they would be: everyone, games, and chaos.

Everyone is home this year for Christmas. The last time we were all together was Thanksgiving 2015, so that isn't too bad, but that means we didn't have a chance to take a family photo until a few days ago. Now that our family photo has been taken, I hope to get my Christmas cards out soon.

Game playing is the major activity going on around here. We had a ton of games to play before we opened our gifts, but afterwards there was a ton more. I wonder if we will get to play them all before everyone starts leaving.

Chaos occurs when you have 8 adults, 1 toddler, and Christmas.  But it's a good chaos. Henry is normally a happy baby and hasn't really been getting into things, so it isn't hard having him here in our non-child-proof house, so that's good.

Chaos is when you mislabel 4 different gifts so when they are being opened you have to yell: That's not for you! I did forewarn them that that might happen though, but I thought maybe one or two might be, but four?

I wrap gifts without putting names on the packages to keep things interesting. Eric, Ryan, and Alex actually figured out the basic system this year, but apparently I got confused while doing it. More or less, a person's birth month number or day might represent them, with those numbers being added together for group gifts. I need to come up with a different system next year. We might go back to the wrapping paper method.

Anyway, we went caroling in the rain Friday night. That meant wet, cold, and mud, but a lot of fun, too. Dinner and games followed. It was a great evening.

pickle hunting Christmas morning...they are looking in the wrong tree

Andrew found it, so he got to put on the Santa hat and pass out the first gift

figuring out his new camera

Ryan giving a funny look because this gift was not his

Hannah showing off her new bracelet her grandparents gave her

Eric made 2 amazing DIY custom vinyl POP figures of Alex's favorite characters