It's All About Family--Part 2

Everybody slept in. We had a big breakfast around 11:30 a.m. And, of course, Sandy had a fun little activity planned for us.

Remember the old "Cootie" game---where you had to roll the dice to make your "cootie?" Well, she did the same thing with reindeer! You can bet I'm going to plan something next year and do the same thing! 

We spent the day just chilling out. The guys watched football while we girls played the game that the winner of the "Reindeer" game won. I can't remember who the winner was, but the game was "Hum and Strum."

The game came with these tiny guitars. The picks had the song on one side that you had to play and hum.

I insisted that we actually play the guitar as the game suggested! We had so much fun and lots of laughs. I guess it must have sounded like we were having too much fun as Mitchell strolled through a couple times to see what was happening. Still, he was lured back to football and didn't want to play.

 We had dinner reservations at a new German restaurant that Sandy and Greg discovered this summer. 

 Of course, I wanted a few pictures before we left.

We are always on the lookout for a really good German restaurant. This one didn't disappoint.

The schnitzel was fabulous! Butch was really excited to see knurdles on the menu. That was something his mom made when he was a kid. Basically, it's a baseball sized dumpling. It wasn't as good as his mom's---but he still liked it. I thought it was okay, but between the spaetzle and red cabbage and German potato salad (my favorites), it was too much food! We're excited to have a place to go when we visit. The only German restaurant here in Nashville is The Gerst House, but they don't do schnitzel---more of a beer and brats place.

More games when we got home. 

On Monday, we girls went to the movie to see The Disaster Artist. It's a true story and was so good and interesting. James Franco and his brother played the leads. James was amazing! He deserves an academy award for sure!

We went out for sushi for dinner. It was Jordan's 23rd birthday--can you believe it? She loves sushi.

On the way home, we looked at Christmas lights.

We didn't even have to leave the neighborhood! If I were guessing, I'd say 75% of the homes were decorated and I'd say 50% of those were really great! Let's put it this way, we spent an hour going down every street.

Once we got home, Sandy surprised Jordan with a few birthday presents and a cake. We played a few games of Heads Up, but everyone was pretty tired. The "kids" stayed up late again. But we had to wrap it up as we flew out on Tuesday morning. 

It was so much fun---just being together. It's also exhausting and a lot of work in terms of food. The house also takes a toll with that many people. 

Seeing things like this is more the norm with this many people in the house--Mitchell's jeans, left inside out on the bathroom floor. He walked past them for a day until Sandy got him to pick them up! The girls---too had their stuff scattered all around. It'll be a miracle if they made it home with all their stuff!

Thanks to Sandy and Greg for putting up with the chaos!