Families

More Jones family Christmas moments.

Last night was the annual Christmas at Aunt Debs. (I wonder what Aunt Deb's family calls this?) Everyone brings a gift and we do that "Dirty Santa," "Secret Santa," "Chinese Christmas" whatever you call it exchange thing where people draw numbers and then get to select a new gift or steal one that has already been opened. Surely you are familiar with the game. As a part of the game, gifts can only be "stolen" a certain number of times and then the gift is said to be "dead." If you possess the item once it becomes "dead" then you get to go home with it.

Well, for a few years in a row, our family ended up taking home some really horrible gifts. Gifts like a six pack of Jones Soda that tasted like a complete Turkey dinner. Gifts like a barking cookie jar. I can't even remember all the horrible gifts, but there were some. Trust me! After a few years of going home with awful gifts, we starting working together as a team to be sure that each one of us went home with something that we liked.

All this plotting to get the best gift has served us well over the past few years. It is fun to try to figure out how to help one another get a good gift. This year the boys both brought girls to the family event, and somehow Mike and I got LEFT OUT of the plotting. But we still went home with good presents. HA!

As family events go, it was fun. We definitely had some memorable moments. Like my great-nephew biting Zack's girlfriend, Christina. (Same nephew who spit on Jacob's girlfriend last year . . . true story.) Like Mario making fun of Jacob when posing for a photo. Moments that won't really mean anything to most of you reading this. But still, great moments.

All that to say, I love family. All of them. Even the biters. :) You don't get to choose your family. But I would choose these people anyway.