On Christmas Eve we went to church earlier than planned because brutally cold weather led our pastors to cancel the second service. Callie and Reese read the story of the birth of Jesus and then we enjoyed a candle light rendition of Silent Night, a highlight of our year. Once we returned home we finalized all of our preparations for dinner and tape ball with the Abrahams. This year marked the return of Linda Kurtz to the event and what made it even better is that this time her husband Daniel got to join in the fun. With 10 people involved, Kelly and Sarah felt the need to up our game and so we had 45 gifts to correspond to 45 numbers encased in a ball of paper and tape. Needless to say, the size of the tape ball is getting out of hand.
But it is tough to argue with an event that brings so much joy and drama to our crew. Reese and Claire are the two most intense players of the kid set, and Daniel showed a lot of competitive spirit in his debut, especially once he realized that the kids aren't the only ones who take this seriously. He really enjoyed that we had no shame in stealing gifts we wanted from the young.
Christmas also marked the return of Ella after she finished her first semester of her sophomore year. We love seeing all of the Abrahams, but we try and get as much Ella time as we can during the holidays in particular. She also does a great job of strategizing during tape ball and we are impressed how she manages to get the gifts she really wants.
We know this picture was taken before tape ball began because Daniel still has his sweater on. It only took a few rotations before the heat of the game made the sweater a problem. We loved having these two become of our tradition and appreciated that they made the effort when they were having to wake up early on Christmas morning to travel to their families. We hope they will do it again with us next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment