Month: December 2011

christmas, giving, holidays

How to play Dirty Santa- the Gigi way

Shannon

We have a relatively new tradition in our family.  The grown ups don’t buy gifts for each other, we just buy for the kids.  But Gigi still wanted the grown ups to be able to unwrap some presents so she decided we’d start playing Dirty Santa.  She collects all the gifts for us and draws up the numbered slips.  Here are her rules (they vary slightly from traditional Dirty Santa/White Elephant rules).

Everyone who plays draws a number.  If there are 10 people you have numbers 1-10 on slips.

Player 1 chooses a gift.

Player 2 can choose to steal Player 1’s gift or choose a gift from the pile.

Player 3 can choose to steal Player 1 or Player 2’s gift or choose a gift from the pile (and so on down the line).

If you draw a present that has a name on it you have to give that gift to the named person and choose another gift.

If you draw a child’s gift you have to gift that gift to a child then draw another gift.

There are 2 rounds.

If you drew #1  you get to choose 3 times.

If there are leftover presents in the dining room that Gigi didn’t see during the Dirty Santa game then there will be a competitive round of Dominos or Cranium, etc to determine the winner of the leftover gift.

Once the game is over you may trade your present with other players if they are willing to trade.

Everyone goes home with fun stocking stuffer type presents!

birthday, csp

CSP turns 40! Third & final day of birthday bonanza!

Shannon

Monday CSP & I met up with his parents at The Liberty Gastropub in SouthEnd for birthday lunch.  After lunch CSP & I went home to get Zoe then we headed out to his parents’ house for dinner, cake, and presents.  They had their tree all decorated.   Zoe LOVES going with us to her granparents’ house.  Usually it means lots of treats and a present or two, even though it’s her daddy’s birthday.  We had a lovely dinner then it was time for cake and presents.   Notice a theme?  Purple & yellow for the Minnesota Vikings, CSP’s favorite team.  Zoe helped open presents  then got tired and just wanted cake.   The big present of the night was a custom jersey with CSP’s name on it!  He was thrilled!    He had a wonderful 40th birthday.  People kept telling him he doesn’t look 40.  The waiter at Growler’s said the same thing.  He said “You don’t look 40.  And I normally save that for the ladies.” ha!  It was a fun 3 days.  Next up on the list of 40th birthday celebrations- our cruise in January!!!

birthday, family, food

CSP turns 40! Day 2 of birthday bonanza!

Shannon

After Saturday’s lunch CSP & I ran some errands, took a nap, then prepared for Sunday.  Sunday at around 1 the parents of CSP came over to celebrate.  CSP bought 100 oysters!  He wanted oysters for his birthday so he got em!  We spent the day preparing a million different kinds of oysters.  Oysters Rockefeller, on the half shell,  stew, and grilled.    I don’t eat oysters but my honey was kind enough to grill me some chicken instead.  It took a good while to shuck all those oysters!  In the meantime we told all the shucking jokes we could come up with!

birthday, csp, events, family, food

CSP turns 40! Day 1 of birthday bonanza!

Shannon

Saturday CSP & I met up with Papa, Gigi, Marc, Sara, Jacob, & Joey at Growler’s Pour House in NoDa for CSP’s birthday lunch.  Growler’s is this cool pub/restaurant that CSP really likes.  I like that it’s next door to the Crepe Cellar.  Papa & Gigi brought the birthday hat and some presents for CSP.   Then much food was ordered.  Wings, beer cheese, pimento cheese, brats, paninis, the works!   We couldn’t eat it all and had to get boxes to go.  Such good food!  The boys came to lunch right after their first basketball games of the season.  Joey had his hair in a fun mohawk!   We stayed about 3 hours and had a great time! I snuck in some 40 candles and gave them to the chef to put in a brownie for CSP.  We all sang and clapped.  Not something you often see in a pub! 

fun

Big D’oh! Moment

Shannon

For the last few weeks I’ve been wearing clear teeth aligners.  Like Invisalign but a different brand.  I’ve gotten pretty used to wearing them.  In fact, I’ve forgotten they were in on a few occasions.  I have to take them out when I eat, but other than that I wear them all the time.  I was in line for a movie last night and popped some gum in my mouth.  I very rarely chew gum.  It causes nothing but problems!   Sure enough I’d forgotten my aligner was in my mouth and next thing you know the STICKIEST FREAKING GUM in the world had made a HUGE mess of my aligner!  I could not get that stuff off!  By the time the previews were over I had gum all over me.  It just kept multiplying!   I got home and tried brushing my aligner with my toothbrush and toothpaste but that didn’t help.  Ugh.  I feel like a dorky 8th grader all over again!