A mix of photography, recipes, personal thoughts, faith, and lots of family stuff, but not necessarily in that order.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Christmas traditions

Many years ago... The Hemmer Family decided to do a Progressive Dinner in December! 
A fun way to sort-of bring in the holidays.
Ricks' mom always hosted Christmas Eve. 
We wanted to find another time to all get to each others homes to
  ooh and ahhh over all the festive decorations, all the while enjoying 
good food and  yummy treats. It usually goes like this....

Rick's sister Susan and her husband Denny start us out with appetizers
 They put on quite a spread, it's hard to hold back and eat light but we still have 2 more course to go.
(Audrey loves Susan's amazing appetizers)

 One of Susan's tree's, this one is so pretty and sits in her living room

 Then it's on to my SIL house for the main course, 
Julie and I usually share this main course, she volunteered this year.  
Menu has always been Chicken wild rice soup with sub sandwiches.
Julie's pretty (upstairs) tree

Then last but not least....Dessert!!!
My Daughter Brianna, offered to open up her lovely home this year.
It's fun now to see the 2nd generation get their homes involved. 
Brianna & Chris's pretty REAL tree!

At the last house (Brianna's) we have a real fun game... it's an ornament exchange.
We each bring an ornament, some are goofy, some pretty, some just so-so.
We draw numbers and begin. If you like someone else's ornament you can steal it 
instead of picking one out of the pile. This year we had an unlimited stealing rule, 
which can make the game go on and on. 

Stealing is very fun 
especially for little Carson as he steals a robot ornament from 2nd cousin Kellie.

Such a fun night, 14 of us made it this year.

The "ugly deer glass ornament", Audrey was less than thrilled. 
Her mama ended up with this one. 
The funny thing was that this ugly deer had the most steals of the night.

 Baby Leo was the youngest this year!
He was such a good boy for being up WAY past his bedtime.

The oldest... Rick's dad.
We are thankful for the years we still have with our parents

Tavis is contemplating a steal from Audrey. 

Julie likes to go from ornament to ornament and in hopes of getting the best one. 

Our (Hemmer) family is small and most of us still live in Rochester! 
This is such a blessing to have most of our family in the same town. 
Only 2 of "the kids" live out of town and rarely make it to the Progressive dinner anymore. 
We miss my nephew Ryan and his family, and my son Brice's family but traveling several hours with little ones for a late night is not easy so we understand! I know if they could.... they'd be here!
Christmas is only a few days away, then ALL of us will be together.... on BOTH sides this year,
I cant wait, safe travels sweet family, see you all soon

Do you have any fun Family Christmas traditions...please share.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing!! Progressive dinner events are so much fun!!! The festive decorations and traditions really add so much!!!!!!

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    1. Yes Doreen, we always have a great time!

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  2. This progressive dinner sounds like such fun.

    On my side of the family, we exchange $10 gifts. A present can be stolen twice. It's always fun.

    Yes, you are blessed to have nearly all of your family right there in Rochester. Our families are spread all over the state and country.

    But mine will all be home on Christmas Eve. I cannot wait.

    Merry Christmas, dear friend!

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    1. Sounds like your game is similar, I actually ended the game this year after about 20 minutes of continuous stealing :) So happy for you to have all your family home this year...Merry Christmas!

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