Christmas 2024, Part 1

The holidays brought with them a number of fun family get-togethers and parties, including gathering with JB's side on Saturday, December 21, at Jeremy's and Alice's home in Centerville. We were treated to delicious breakfast foods, and of course eight-month-old William was everyone's favorite kid to spend time with.

The return of new Reindeer Games were once again a highlight. They were particularly notable this time around in that I finally won one! Finishing first in a game of Christmas trivia won me (and us, meaning JB and me) this awesome cookie skillet, or "skookie":

I learned a new word today and hope that you did, too. We're gonna have a lot of fun with that.

Christmas 2023, Part 1

On Friday night, we hosted a Christmas gathering at our house for JB's side of the family. This night marked the culmination of another week of "Reindeer Games," our third annual series of "Minute to Win It" contests.

The evening's events included the candy cane drop, in which contestants had to try to get as many candy canes to stick on a line of string in 60 seconds' time. Tatum had the best score, with 4.

JB came up with some great prizes for the winners, including blankets, a board game, and a card game.

Christmas 2022, Part 1

So, this was Christmas. And what have we done?

We first traveled out to Grantsville on Christmas Adam (December 23, the day before Christmas Eve ... get it?) to celebrate with JB's side of the family. There was a lot of good food, including sloppy joes, cheese and crackers, holiday goodies, and such. And there were also (wait for it): Reindeer Games!

Last year's Reindeer Games was such a big hit, we decided to do them again. For this year's Second Annual Reindeer Games, we played five "Minute to Win It"-type games back to back. One of these was the candy cane drop, which involved trying to get as many candy canes as possible to remain on the string over the course of a minute. JB and Tatum demonstrate here by:

For another game, one teammate had to wear the reindeer hat while that person's teammate threw rings at the antlers and tried to get as many rings to land on them as possible ... in a minute (go figure).

The mischievous look on Spencer's face here is just ... really something.

And so on. It was a fun night. And the good food and even better company almost made me forget that the Plowbuckles team finished nowhere near first place in the overall point totals.

Arbuckle Family Dinner/December 2021

Sunday's monthly family dinner in Grantsville also marked the ninth and final day of our family Reindeer Games competition.

What do you mean by Reindeer Games? you ask? Over the course of nine days (one day/game for each of Santa's reindeer), my sister-in-law Alice challenged us all to various competitions of skill, in the spirit of the "Minute to Win It" TV show. For example, we had to flip a water bottle off of a basketball and catch the bottle before it hit the ground, as many times as possible within a minute. Or we also tried, in teams (families), to construct the largest tower of toilet paper rolls that would stand for at least 15 seconds before collapsing. We both participated and watched each other's efforts over numerous Marco Polo videos.

On Sunday, for our final game, we divided up into four teams for the final event: the Reindeer Race. For this contest, we had to dress up a chosen runner for each team in an outfit that looked like this (Tatum, our featured runner, here demonstrates):

After the costume was ready, the runner then had to go out into the very cold night and complete a full lap around the circle, all the while saying ho ho ho repeatedly.

This is what it looked like, with Tatum followed closely by Olivia in second place:

Tatum and our team eked out the win. After this game finished, Alice presented awards to all of the winners of the other eight days of games (I came close in two of them but didn't win any) and gave reindeer crowns to all of the participants. Steve also gave Alice a bouquet of roses as a thank you from all of us for putting together the Reindeer Games.

Here is everyone with their reindeer crowns:

It looks like the First Annual Reindeer Games was a big success! JB and I sure had a great time. There was a lot of talk about holding a Second Annual Reindeer Games next year.

As for family dinner, we had that, too. The menu included ham, roasted potatoes, rolls, and chocolate cheesecake for dessert.