Christmas!

This year we stayed in Indiana for Christmas, and had a wonderful time with Benny's family.

The Sunday night before Christmas, we picked up Benny's older brother Shaun, who lives in Phoenix, from the airport. We got to spend the day with him here in Anderson before Benny brought him up to Lafayette on Monday night for the Purdue basketball game.


Benny and Shaun, making Christmas cookies at our apartment.


I had to work on Tuesday and Wednesday (Christmas Eve) nights, so we waited to go to Lafayette until Thursday afternoon. Benny and I opened our Christmas presents for each other and from my family on Christmas Eve. Our apartment is a little smaller than our house, so we weren't able to use our normal 6-foot tree. But, we did find this little 4-foot tree at Meijer that ended up looking pretty funny with all of the presents around it...

We liked it though...



Thursday evening, we spent some time with Benny's Mom's side of the family. We had a great meal together and loved the great conversations and had a blast playing with the kids.

Benny with Elizabeth and Abigail. (Two of Benny's cousin Laura's kids)



The Jonas family, playing Catchphrase.



Benny wrestling with Laura's boys, Joshua and Josiah. Notice that he's in complete control of BOTH of them...one with his legs, and the other with his arms. I was exhausted just watching.



Being silly at TJ Maxx. We are so good at looking hot...



Okay, the next section of this post will take a while to explain, but it was probably the highlight of the trip, so hang in there! :)

One evening, we decided to play Yahtzee with Kyle, Larry and Leta (Benny's younger brother, his Dad, and his Dad's wife.) Larry had never played Yahtzee, so the first game was spent making sure he knew all of the rules. Yahtzee has always been a relatively calm game, but the second game got a little interesting...

Midway through the game, Larry rolled a Yahtzee (all five dice are the same number). Benny always yells YAHTZEE in a really funny way when anyone gets one, so this time was no different, except he thought Larry needed to run a lap around the table to commemorate his very first Yahtzee ever. He did so with pride. (No photo of this event.)

A little while later, he was getting ready to roll ANOTHER Yahtzee, and Benny decided if he got it, he would need to run a lap around the table sucking his thumb. Well...he got it...




(A little extra victory dancing...)




A few minutes after that, Larry was getting ready to roll his THIRD Yahtzee. Benny decided he'd have to do his legendary "two ball trick" if he got this one. (Leta had never been introduced to this infamous Larry trick, and if you've ever seen it, you can truly appreciate this!) Needless to say, he got the third Yahtzee...

(Part One of the trick)


(Part two of the trick.)


A couple of rounds later, Larry was about to roll his FOURTH Yahtzee. Because this is practically UNHEARD of in this dice-rolling game, Benny went all out on his celebration idea...Larry should streak around the outside of the house. When the fifth dice was the same as all of the other ones, Benny and Larry ran yelling to the front door, but at the last minute, Larry said, "I can't run outside naked!" and Benny, always with a quick response, said "Just take off your shirt!" And he did...

(It was raining outside, by the way)


I can honestly say that I have NEVER laughed so hard during a game of Yahtzee, and there will probably never be another game like it.


(Larry's score card.)




On Monday (the 29th), we met up with Benny's mom for lunch. We went to Potbellys, a sandwich place in West Lafayette. It's probably one of my favorite places to eat, and we HAVE to go there every time we're in town.




Well, that was our Christmas break in a nutshell. We hope that you had a fabulous time celebrating our Savior's birth with your friends and family!