family party

I realize it's not Christmas anymore, but I want to document our holiday so I can get the year printed up into our yearbook. 

We had a crazy little family get-together during December.  The Whipples are a crazy and unpredictable group and there is just enough Whipple DNA that flows through my kids blood that brings out their crazy-ness. 

We played some "Minute to Win It" games. Ben was trying to blow down Olivia's stack of balanced hardware that she carefully stacked up with a candy cane.

But in the end, Olivia prevailed.
Brady and Stephanie tried to move a Christmas ornament across the room and place the hook correctly on the string.

Dave and I made an effort too.

I'm not sure Garry and Debbie were trying to play the game, or were just smooching.

Shaw took the whiteboard game pretty seriously.

Lesa was able to shimmy a cookie down off her forehead and into her mouth without her hands.  This family has some skills!

To top off our evening, Dave gave us a ride around the neighborhood on his Christmas Parade float so we could serenade all our neighbors with some beautiful and solemn Christmas Carols.  The first song that was chosen was Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". The WHOLE song!

Eventually we moved on to real holiday songs, but realized we were limited to only one verse per Christmas Carol and nobody knew more than the first two words of "Feliz Navidad"

Jonny, Roxanne, Olivia and Jeff

Melanie, in her natural state. She forgot to pose for the camera.

Niels, Brady, Stephanie, Melanie and Darren

Roni holding Coralie, and Chelsea

Rachel, Lauri and Kelsie

And one of the littlest members of our family, Addison , with her Grandma, Debbie.