Besides spending time with our children, we made that long
drive north to spend time with our parents, siblings, nieces and
nephews. So the next 6-hour drive took us back
to Oklahoma City through torrential rain and icy roads. Roads around Tulsa were closed due to
flooding from almost a foot of rain that had fallen in the last two days. We were greeted by an ice storm that froze Oklahoma City in its tracks. Denisa braved the ice to take a few pictures of the ice that encased everything outside.
These roses that were blooming on a 70-degree day earlier this week were now frozen in time.
We arrived in time for Denisa’s family
Christmas celebration. All that ice tried to cancel our family get-together, but we are made of tough pioneer stock that arrived to this state in the Oklahoma land-run. So driving on ice and snow was no problem, and we all made it there. Denisa's siblings were
there, as well as many of our nieces and nephews. Of course, most of the pictures seemed to be
taken of the youngest generation, as we always enjoy playing with our great
nieces and nephews.
Since we don’t have
grandchildren yet, we must be content to spoil our sibling’s
grandchildren. We’re just glad they don’t
mind sharing! Denisa’s Mother likes to get a picture with her great
grandchildren, and we had all but one on the couch this time.
After a great meal, we started playing games. We have a tradition of playing a very
competitive game of spoons when we get together. Here we are
smiling before the spoons start flying.
In case you don’t know about this "complicated" game, it
involves passing cards to try to get a set of four cards of the same number. The first person with a set grabs a spoon
from the table, and everyone else does the same. It sounds civilized until you know that there
is one less spoon than there are people playing the game.
This shortage results in people diving over the table or
crawling on the floor to get those precious spoons. Everyone that has successfully grabbed a spoon stands around laughing smuggly at those less fortunate that are still grappling for one.
It can also result in a stand-off when two cousins have a
solid grip on the same spoon.
The youngest generation isn’t allowed to play yet. So they sat patiently on the couch, waiting to
spring into action to retrieve the cards that are spilled onto the floor in the
mayhem each hand. Then they would report
to Denisa how many they found on the floor each time.
You have to have a set of spoons and decks of cards set
aside for this game because it is guaranteed that both the spoons and
cards will be bent and broken by the end of the game. We found ourselves playing near Denisa’s sister and
brother-in-law, at the end of the table that we affectionately called the
geriatric section. Most of the players
were twenty or thirty years younger than us, but somehow Denisa managed to stay
in the game until it was down to the last four players from the original eleven. But she was no match for these younger
players that will sacrifice all for that precious spoon. This year’s winner was our niece Beth, mother
of two but still up to the Janzen family spoon challenge. She's in the center of the picture below in the gray cardigan. Congratulations Beth!
After the rousing game of spoons, our son Blake was the main attraction as the children lined up to be thrown into the air so they landed on the couch. He got a work-out and they thought it was better than a carnival ride.
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