Reindeer Games

We opted to start Christmas morning by opening presents at our house before going over to Mimi and Grumpa's house. The kids woke up at a sane hour and it was nice not having to make the kids wait for a big group to wake up and assemble. We devoured the classic pull-aparts and did a bit of extra gift swapping.

 Max majorly enhanced our Christmas Day celebrations by introducing "Reindeer Games," a series of Christmas themed challenges for three teams captained by the three kids. It was SO FUN.  

First up: Unwrapping boxes with oven mitts on hands

The Shiny Nose Challenge- we put vaseline on our noses then transferred cotton circles from one bowl to another. It took my teammates a while to tell me that the competition used creative means to finish in a crazy short time. I should have thought to use my beard as velcro or breathe in. 

Attempting to stay in the square while marching in time with the music

We were shocked that Isaac was absolutely KILLING it at scooping marshmallows while blindfolded until we realized he was peeking the whole time. 

The challenge was to see how many candles you could blow out while saying "Merry Christmas" as forcefully as possible. Blake blew us away.

Reindeer hooves 

Team streamer pull

The Cup of Cheer- I have no clue how Morgan drank that water so fast. I don't understand the physics of it. 

Max said "the next game will be messy" and Blake IMMEDIATELY stripped his shirt off like he was just waiting for an excuse to do so.

The snow shovel- we had to scoop up flour in a card in our mouths and dump it into a bowl. In the grown up round, we had to do it in a 3 person relay race. You have to hold your breath to avoid blowing all the flour off your card. We were doing great until one person laughed and we all ended up covered in flour.

We tied marshmallows to string that went over a rope and down to the challenger's ankles. They had to lift their feet to get the marshmallows to lower down  so that they could try to grab them with their mouths.

Blake got so aggressive with this one with no success whatsoever

Annie got all tuckered out and fell asleep by the fireplace at the end of the night

This was one of my favorite Christmas Days that we have ever experienced!

We got to hang out for one more day after Christmas. The big hit of the year was a cardboard construction kit. The kids made quite the elaborate fort that eventually included multiple rooms with connecting tunnels. Isaac swears that food tastes better in the fort and opted to eat his dinner there by himself a few times.