Deck of the Halls

Every year our friends Jen & Dylan Hall have a Christmas party at their house and call it "Deck of the Halls". This year, due to the threat of bad weather and for whatever other reasons, a lot of people didn't show up, but it was still a lot of fun. We always do a White Elephant gift exchange which is generally hilarious. Thanks again Jen & Dylan for having us and for the good time! We love you!
The scene at their house, pre gift exchange. I loved their tree, since we don't have one this year :(

Dylan, giving his annual speech, welcoming us all and explaining the gift exchange

Jen, who said "boo" to the tools, but "yay" to the snickers!

Ryan, with the sheep gift

A blurry Rick, with Trivial Pursuit and fancy hot cocoa

Misty, me and Jen

Me and the hostess with the mostest

Later in the evening always ends up a dance party. Bill and Jen competing for the best dancer...

DJ Rick. I guess I should explain I got Rick some wireless turntable thing for his birthday. I ordered it the beginning of September and it finally just came last week! He was in heaven running the music for the party!

The gang this year, minus TJ because his gift that he was holding was too inappropriate for my blog!

In other happenings...the weather! If you're not an Oregonian like us, I don't know if you've heard about the weather here but it's crazy! We've been below freezing since Friday I think. This many days in a row is so unheard of here and it is supposed to continue all the way through next Monday! They're saying it may hit 34 tomorrow, but that really does not count in my book as a heat wave! We had snow on Sunday, but it was so windy here that anything that did accumulate quickly blew away or evaporated. Vancouver got nearly nothing, so with us being so far north, we really hardly got anything either. Everyone further south and east of us, and higher elevation got quite a bit, and days later the side roads are still a huge mess. We are expected to get a few more inches tomorrow, then some freezing rain, then maybe some regular rain, followed by more snow. And Sunday is supposed to be "the biggest snow event" so far. Goodness! I don't know what to think about all of this wintery weather, since we often don't get this much all winter, let alone packed into one week! I am actually enjoying it though. We have NOTHING scheduled for work, which is good because of the weather but bad because it means I am earning nothing this month. I am glad to not have to worry about driving in the snow and ice though because I am just not experienced. Hopefully if we get some decent snow tomorrow I'll be able to take Rocco out in it to see what he thinks, and get some pictures. It's hard to believe Christmas Eve is one week from tomorrow. I finished all our Christmas shopping yesterday, just in case the weather prevented me from not getting back out. I also went to the grocery store tonight to stock up in case of a big storm and they were out of tons of things. I heard Fred Meyers all over town were out of milk, bread and cold weather things like cocoa. Ours had hardly any macaroni and cheese but other than that, nothing else that I was desperate for. I stocked up on milk, bread and soup and have a week's worth of meals just in case. The only bad thing that has happened so far is the drain our washer drains into froze up so when I ran a load of laundry the water ran over the pipe causing some water to end up on the floor. The pressure of the water broke through the freezing layer of sitting water easily and the rest drained out fine. It just meant a little clean up. Thank goodness. I can not take any more water problems around here right now!
Well I hope you are all keeping plenty warm and enjoy the snow tomorrow!