Baker Sock Party. . .

Rob's family has had a Christmas tradition that goes back way before I became a part of the family. Each year, around Thanksgiving, they put every one's name in a hat. The hat is passed as each person draws out a name, keeping it a secret from everyone else. When I first met Rob, this "sock party" was held on Christmas Eve each year and every person brought a Christmas sock filled with fun and unique gifts for the person whose name they drew. Over the years, adding spouses and then grand kids into the mix, the tradition has evolved accordingly. We now meet on a night a couple of weeks before Christmas in order to have plenty of time to spend opening our little gifts and trying to guess who purchased and packaged them especially for us. We've also added a door prize to the mix. I think Jeanie started this tradition by bringing a Christmas-y gift one year and we drew a name out of a hat to see who would take that gift home. In return, that same person would purchase a gift the next year and the process would be repeated. It's been fun seeing what everyone comes up with and I've added a few things to my decorations along the way. We always have a lot of fun at these parties and this year was no exception!

Last year we added a "white elephant" gift exchange into the mix. It's a funny Christmas tradition that lets you "steal" a gift away from a friend or family member. When Grandma's turn came around, Kelsey begged her not to steal her chocolate! It worked and Grandma moved on to steal from someone else. . .

Look how thrilled she is with the book making kit she took from Matt!! (He was pretty happy about it!!)

I think she regretted not taking the chocolate. . . too bad. . . !

It was a great party! It really was! We opened all of our "sock" gifts and I got all sorts of cute, fun, interesting things but at some point during the course of the party, my weekend activities caught up with me and I did this:

Someone, I think it must have been Jeanie, picked up my camera and kept taking pictures in my absence! So I have proof that I wasn't the only one!!!!!:

It was fun to find these pictures on my camera later in the day!!!

Good times!!!

Post Script: I have to admit that I copied the first paragraph, word for word, from my December blog post 2 years ago!!! I suppose it's OK since they were my words!! I guess that's one of the benefits of blogging day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. . . :)