"Festivus for the Rest of Us!"

Hello you Bloggers in Blogland! Our weekend was filled with holiday fun and hopefully yours was too. The fun began with a Christmas dinner party at the Sinders'. Jen and Kevin were there and it was the first time we'd seen Lee Anne since she surprised Rachel by coming home from North Carolina for her birthday in February. Rachel made a wonderful meal of pork loin, a sweet/regular potato bake, asparagus, salad, bread, and carrot cake (in remembrance of all my ruined carrot cakes last week). We played a rousing game of Uno, struggled to answer questions in Trivial Pursuit, and enjoyed the annual Christmas showing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and...uh...Dumb and Dumber. Charlie the Corgi seemed to really love us on this visit (even Brent), but I attribute his affection to the bites of pork I gave him. It was either that or the bacon grease I rubbed behind my ears on the car ride there.






Trying on Justin's Ugly Sweater for size...
Before the Great Goodwill Hairball of 2007 came flying out of it...


Saturday morning started bright and early with an 8:30 a.m. trip to Marsh for party supplies as we hosted the 1st Annual Stevenson Family Ugly Christmas Sweater Party/Adopt-a-Family Extravaganza. People had gone plumb crazy in anticipation of the approaching snowstorm and all seemed to rush to the store at once. You would have thought it was December 1999 and we were gearing up for Y2K again. I was just there for wine and meatball-fixin's...I was and continue to be very unconcerned with the danger of starving to death during a weekend snow (knock on wood). I hate to brag, but I think I could sustain myself for quite awhile with my own reserves.




The Ugly Christmas Sweater party was not only a blast but we also gathered a lot of great goodies for our Christmas family. Thank you everyone! The weather really did shrink the guest list, but we were so glad that a lot of our Indianapolis-ites could still make it and were surprised and thrilled that our friends Emma, Greg and Laura from the North came anyway!


Lana (a.k.a. - Santa's Little Helper), Lindsay, and Craig


Justin and Rachel - Christmas pin, anyone??


Brent and The Oglesbys


Greg and Clinton


Manchester Laaaaadies....a few who aren't wearing pants


The Wal-Mart Christmas Vest


A proof of our Christmas card for 2008



Another potential Christmas greeting