Saturday, January 2, 2010

Culver Christmas Tradition



As I'm putting the Christmas decorations away today, its like taking a trip down memory lane.  Every piece I pick up tells a story or reminds me of other happy times.  So while this job of putting the decorations away is one of my least favorite things to do, I'm trying to make it a little more pleasurable by being mindful of items I'm handling.  Which leads me to think about my favorite holiday tradition:  Christmas Eve Bingo.

We have played Bingo on Christmas Eve for the past 30 years.  It started out as a way to keep the younger kids occupied until we were ready to open a few gifts and it has morphed into the most anticipated event of the whole Christmas gathering.  The best part about Bingo, is the prizes.  Throughout the year we all scout out and gather up potential bingo prizes; the weirder, the better.  In fact, the ladies in the family take a trip to Shipshewana, Indiana every summer to their flea market with big plans to find prizes.  We even make a game out of it.  Whoever can find the weirdest, ugliest, or most bizarre item for $2 or less wins.  This year, I bought a pair of ginormous purple panties.

 Can you see the red hat up in the corner?


There are also some really nice gifts mixed in with the pile of prizes but you never know what you're going to get because they're all wrapped.  This year, we had about 40 prizes in the center of the table.  Stealing someone else's prize is allowed, but only before they're unwrapped.  This year, I won this:



                     If I'd have known that this was possible, I would have saved myself a lot of problems!!!


  My nephew opened these fabulous prizes.  You can tell by the look on his face that he is just thrilled!




While sitting in my Mom's house, my eyes wandered over to her fireplace where she has a lovely scene set out.  But upon closer inspection, something seemed out of place.  It reminded me of an old Sesame Street song:  One of These Things is Not Like the Other...  See if you can figure out what I'm talking about.  

 
To me, there's something a little out of place with the snowman angel standing in the back.  Anyway, it made me laugh! 

So today, while I'm not doing anything toward achieving my publicly announced goals, I am doing things that make me happy.  I'm sitting here at my computer, watching the snow fall beautifully outside with a cup of hot coffee by my side, and I have plans later to meet some friends for dinner.  That sounds like a pretty good day!


3 comments:

  1. Hi Anne! Welcome to the blogging world! I can't wait to read about your goals and kids. Here are my comments to far:

    Good job on the running... one day you will all of a sudden realize that you just ran and never stopped. It is a good feeling. What race are you doing?

    As for the purple underwear, did someone open them at Bingo this year? I actuall needed a new pair of giant panties. (LOL) We had soooooooooo many bingo presents this year that I feel like I didn't get to see all of them.

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  2. And I love the title! I just bought the movie yesterday for $4.99.

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  3. I think your Mom opened the purple panties. She probably still has them. And where did you find the movie? I own it on cassette, but I need a DVD. Your mom and I are running the 5/3 River Bank Run in May. I haven't decided yet whether to do 5 or 10k - I'll probably be bullied into the 10k. You could come and run with us!

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