A Larsen Family Party

The weekend before Christmas, we went to Northern Utah for a family party. It was a lot of fun...

I asked my cousin Kristin to plan something for an ugly sweater contest. My family was very creative. 

Mathew & his family...Oh they were so cute! I didn't get a picture of Whitney...she had an advent calendar on her sweater!!! Loved, loved, loved that they were so festive with the idea. My sweater wasn't planned at all! We found a sweater at Goodwill...when I put it on I realized it was a child's size large! Oh well I wore it anyway!!!

Yes that's me taking a selfie of me in my sweater!!!

I decided when the plans were being made that the family needed some kind of entertainment...I suggested we play Minute to Win It Games. I was then places in charge of planning it! We did 10 different games. I don't have much proof of anyone doing the games because we were having so much fun we forgot to take pictures! However, I did get my aunt Sandra & uncle Craig playing Whip Cream Tannenbaum...

They were chosen by their grandson Zack to play....

This is me giving the description of their game....(I felt bad for some of my family members when they were playing some of the games...)

This is the reaction that happened when they figured it out...

Some action shots...

Build the tallest Christmas tree with whip cream (or in our case 3-bowls of whipping cream)

As Sandra was working away she says "You can see who does all the cooking in our house!" I like Craig's idea of topping it off with the spoon!!!

The end results....Sandra won!!!

After Minute to Win It, we did our gift exchange. We went around the room doing the white elephant exchange...

This is the family during the gift exchange...

Cousins, cousins with a few parents...

Most of my cousins....

My girls were worried about the dogs in the car...of course they made an appearance! (But the dogs were just fine...they had blankets & their beds in the car! Todd even agreed with me! Oh well!)

Uncle Lynn on the hunt for a present....

Mom on the first of many of her presents that night!!!

Aunt Camille with one of her many presents as well...I think she took these from my mom...

I think this is when Bo got the pink cleaning gloves! They were a big hit!!

See there they are! And he isn't the one who ended up with them!!!

Ohhhh yes! The cream soda Jeff got! Breanne ended up with that. I do believe Jeff ended up with the pink gloves!

But Bo did end up with the shampoo! Notice his long flowing hair? Funny stuff!

This is one set of the pillow cases I made. Little Jade got the snowman ones and my cousin Rachael got the polka dot ones! I don't have much sewing skills, but pillow cases I can make...

My cousin Kristin announcing the winners of the ugly sweaters...

Connor ended up with the ugliest... (Oops...I was just informed that Brayden was the winner! I told them I was bad with names!)

Emma was the fuzziest....

Ahhh...here's a slight glimpse of Whitney's advent calendar sweater! This pic does NOT capture the details of the sweater! It was pretty fabulous & creative.

I saw many smiles on everyone's faces. I'm sad I wasn't able to get pictures of everyone & everything that was going on...but overall it was a successful night! We laughed as a family at all our silliness! If a family is able to come together and be silly and laugh together at each other's silliness I'd say it was a success.

I am thankful for my family. We may not see each other on a regular basis, but we are atill family no matter what. I am now thinking about what we can do for next years party...I already have so fabulous, fun ideas!