Christmas Part 1

This past weekend was the Hurley portion of the Holiday week. When Kevin and I got engaged, we set up a yearly way of splitting up the holidays. We spend Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve with one of our families and Christmas Day with the other. This back and forth system has worked pretty well in the past, until this year. This year it is the Bratcher's year to have us on Christmas Day and the Hurley's year to have us on Christmas Even. But because of Kevin's crazy "days of leave" it made more sense for us to spend Monday and Tuesday at the Hurleys. Kevin's brother, Mark, came into town on Saturday and the Hurley extended family Christmas party was that same night, so Kevin and I decided to spend Saturday thru Tuesday with his family.

Saturday evenings Hurley Christmas party was similar to past years...we weren't sure who was coming, there were some interesting presents in the gift exchange, and I lost at poker due to frustration. Let me explain...first the gift exchange. The Hurley's do a gift exchange similar to many people. Each person draws a number 1 - however many people are there. The first person opens a present from under the tree. Then the second person can either steal the first person's present or pick another one from under the tree. This goes on until everyone has a present. The difference between a normal gift exchange and the one at the Hurley's is that the Hurleys have some strange rules. Strange rule number one is that the person that draws #1 gets to be the last person to steal a present...I have never seen this done in any other circle. The other rule that is non-existant is that a gift can be stolen several times in one round.

So, here is the situation. There were two presents where lottery tickets were involved. Mark, Kevin's cousin-in-law Nikki and Kevin's cousin McKayla all wanted lottery tickets. Mark and Nikki both had lottery ticket gifts, and McKayla stole Mark's gift, so Mark stole Nikki's, so Nikki stole McKayla. This circle went round and round about four times before Nikki finally decided to steal something else. It was the most entertaining part of the evening.

The other funny part of the gift exchange was the gifts themselves. Steve, my father-in-law, brought tow-ropes (which he wanted for himself), then chose his own gift when his number came around. Kevin ended up with a coffeemaker that was the gift his Aunt Donna had won in last year's gift exchange. And Mark brought what he called a "party in a bag," which turned out to be a 24 oz Budweiser and some lottery tickets. It made for a hilarious evening. All in all it was an interesting evening.

Sunday was a nice dinner at Mark Manley's house. Kevin had hoped that he would cook for his family while they were all in town, and Mark kindly agreed. It was an extremely relaxing evening filled with good food, great conversation and wonderful company. Definitely one of the highlights of the evening.

We spent Monday and Tuesday playing the wii, having a nice "Christmas" dinner, opening presents, watching movies, hanging out and laughing at the hilarious things Mark Hurley tends to say. These past few days have just made it more clear that Kevin and I would love to live closer to his brother -- we simply do not see him enough.

Tomorrow Kevin is going to work, yes, on Christmas Eve. We will have dinner with Mark Manley and his family, sing in the Westminster Christmas Eve service, then head down to the Bratcher's for Christmas day. I am extremely excited to see my family and I am hoping it is a relaxing and fun weekend. I hope that you have a very Merry Christmas and special time with the ones that you love. I feel truly blessed to have two families, the Bratchers and the Hurleys, that I love very much. Merry Christmas!