Two Happy Cats

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We've been spending the last several days with extended family.  Last weekend was the Engelke Christmas gathering, this year at Deer Valley Lodge.  Brian organizes this, and we moved from the MP hotel to Barneveld this year to be able to keep our "gathering room" with its food table, TV, tables, etc.  Our family is too big to gather without having a large gathering place!  I'll explain the blog title "Two Happy Cats" in just a bit.  It'll make sense;)

Crystal had emailed me a few months ago asking for the list of things Dad/Grandpa always said.  We compiled them at his funeral, I mentioned some in his eulogy, and we call them "Govisms".  Anyway, look at  the cool coasters she made with them (from flooring tile samples)!  What a special gift.

The kids love to have lots of room to play with their cousins, including these two 8-year-olds.

Eddie Lacy/Garrison & Wynne, 3rd graders getting too darn big!!

The cousin exchange is always neat because they sit in a big circle and go one-at-a-time.  Wynne picked out some Fisher Price farm toys for 2-year-old Emerson.  I think she liked them:)

Shae and Paige had Joseph and Logan's names.  We bought handmade wooden toys for them (Logan's was a big truck to which we added Matchbox cars).  Joseph lives on a farm, so we thought he would appreciate the pick-up truck and farm animals.  Shae did a great job painting them!

After their gift exchange, it was time for the annual laser tag game.  Thank goodness we were in their basement nowhere near the hotel's sleeping rooms!!

Christopher photobombs the laser tag game

Aunt Sonja and Uncle Brad help Tim and Maryellen's girls play "Trouble" - Annamae (3), Addie (5), and Elsie (6)!

 See that window behind Deb, Mom, and Dan?  We were at just below ground level, so if you slid that window open, you could set your beverages out on the back parking lot to keep cold...or whatever else you wanted to keep cold (like, say, a pan full of homemade pasties that you were planning to give away as a gift).  Now, remember that window as I'll explain its significance in just a bit....

Finally it was time for the adult gift exhange.  We play a take-away type game where you can steal a gift only once per round, but there can be up to 3 steals per round.  It gets quite entertaining.

Looking around the circle at the anxious gift-giver/getters!

I was so happy that my niece Lacey was excited to open the gift I brought...a Grandpa/Dad Bear :) Mom let us each take some of Dad's clothes from his closet, and I commissioned a doll-clothing maker (Pat, you are AMAZING!) to turn his shirts into little  teddy bear shirts.  I bought the bears at Dollar Tree.  Then I asked her to try and make leather vests and berets, if she could.  How do you think she did?  Isn't it adorable?!! And just small enough for Lacey to take on the plane back to CA with her the next day!

I gave one of these bears to my mom, brothers, and sisters.  Here's the poem I wrote to go with him:
I'm not your ordinary bear;
Look closely and you'll see...
My shirt's been worn by someone 
Who shares Eternity!
So when you need to laugh or cry,
Or need some hope or love,
Remember that, "This, too, shall pass," 
Says my buddy who's up above!

Makeshift nail spa on the hotel floor...Claire, Wynne, & Ally (was it midnight yet, girls?). We lose track of time in a room like this!

The next morning, guess who wanted to go back into the waterpark?

That's right - little Wynne Bear;)

Brad's grandkids were in there, bright and early, too!

Smile, Bailey, Catherine, and Shae!

It was another whirlwind night-morning at the Engelke Christmas!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the TWO HAPPY CATS!  I forgot to take a picture, I was so lost laughing in the moment.....

Brian and Kaleb had set their beer and pan of pasty/venison sausage wrapped in foil out on the back parking lot (outside of that window, remember?).  We came to find out that there were two stray cats wandering around outside the hotel.  When it was time to bring in Kaleb's gift for the exhange, half of the sausage and all of the pasties were gone....a feast for two homeless felines!

It probably doesn't sound funny; guess you had to be there;)

Oh well, at least we made 2 cats' day!