Dinner Time Fun...

Growing up family meals around the table were always an important and meaningful time. Both of my parents were teachers so during the school year their weekly schedules were pretty busy, but they made sure to gather all of us together each night to reconnect after the days events. As teenagers my sibs and I had our share of eye rolls and attitudes, but looking back I certainly would not trade that for anything. Todd and I have made a point of making meal time a time to hear about the girls days, and sharing things that are going on in each of their lives.

Tonight we played "Dinner Games". This is a game of trivia questions and dinner activities that are geared to making dinner a fun and meaningful time together.

Tonight's games consisted of:

1. Get To Know Ya Trivia - We would ask the girls questions about ourselves...places we've lived, questions about our parents, etc....It was fun to hear some of their answers and then to tell them more about us...things that we wouldn't think to share on a "normal" day. The girls then asked us questions about themselves....We needed to answer questions about favorite recess activities, favorite school subject, friends they like to spend time with at school, etc....

2. Mrs. Paghetti's Spaghetti - The youngest child at the table begins the game by filling in the blank in this sentence, "Mrs. Paghetti likes her spaghetti with _____________ on top". The next person repeats the sentence with the first topping, plus one of his or her own. Each player in turn repeats the sentence with all the previous toppings and adds a new one as well. You continue this until no one can name all the toppings (or until mom or dad decide it's gone on long enough and we need to get to cleaning up the kitchen!)

This is how our family decided Mrs. Paghetti liked her Spaghetti:

Mrs. Paghetti likes her spaghetti with garlic, quesadillas, ketchup, bowling pins, light bulbs, toe nail clippings (thanks for that one Hannah!), hot fudge, yellow snow, fire, maple syrup, gum drops, and the State of Missouri....on top!

Quite the imaginations....

Dinner games are a lot of fun and great opportunity to have some laughs around the family table at meal time.

Out With The Old....In With The New...

This past year has brought some incredible blessings, new friends, new adventures, and many new wonderful memories. It was also accompanied by some hurts, losses, & disappointments...but looking ahead we are filled with much faith and trust that many great things will happen in 2009.

We decided to bring in the New Year down in Kalamazoo. Todd's sister and her husband are part of an improv group that has been part of the Kalamazoo New Years Fest the past 5 years. A variety of groups and acts were performing simotainiously throughout the night at various churches in downtown Kalamazoo. We found ourselves laughing so hard it hurt. The girls even got to participate in one of the groups skits. Other things we experienced included outdoor jazz music, a silent comedienne, a Creole band, African drummers and dancers, possibly the best soup in a bread bowl ever, lots of hot chocolate (it was a balmy 15 degrees outdoors), and fireworks at midnight while standing with a multitude of strangers all wishing for nothing but good things for the year ahead. It made for an incredible night....one that may just go down as one of the best New Years Eves ever! This could very well become our new New Years Eve tradition!