The Relative Game

You may be asking yourself why I would post this incredibly amusing picture on my blog. And I agree that's a very noteworthy question...A good friend of mine, sent me an email today with this picture that in her words "might solve all Mick's problems."

Now the game!

We play this really, really, extremely quirky game in our family...called "The Relative Game". It started out on the night before a family wedding...I can't even remember who was getting married, but JoAnn, Mick and I were talking about the fact that the person marrying our family didn't really know what they were getting into...I mean really had they met "Aunt Cackle" and various others? Then JoAnn and I started comparing relatives against Mick's and the game was born.

Basically, the rules are:

1. The person with the weirdest relatives wins (or looses...depends on your perspective.)

2. You HAVE to claim even the most obscure relatives who may in any way be "loosely" related to your side of the family. And when we say "loosely" we mean loosely. IE. Mick has to claim his sister in laws, grandmothers, long lost son AND a lady we know from home who used to live in his parent's ward...you get the idea.

So now we play this game fairly often. Always when we are having a family wedding and various other times, just because we can...not to mention that it TOTALLY amuses us.

(BTW...Mick usually looses the game, well, unless Ernie is playing. She has the BEST trumps.)

New Year's Eve Extravaganza

You may THINK that extravaganza is quite a strong word to use to describe a New Year's Eve party...but if you do, you have never attended our party. This year was kind of small...only 45-50 people came. But we had fondue like always...2 kinds of meat, 3 kinds of cheese, pizza fondue, 2 kinds of carmel and of course, chocolate. It's always tons of fun with tons and tons of old and new friends, games, noise, fire works, etc.

Once again proving that I am a very cool Aunt. I may have taken the children toilet papering after the party was mostly breaking up. Hey, they needed an adult so they didn't get in trouble for breaking curfew. ;O)

Today it was back to work. That was not very amusing. But it is a necessary evil. If I'm going to travel and play somebody has to work to pay for it. And apparently that somebody is me. Happy New Year to all of you.

Kenya Internet Connections & Other Random Stuff

So the whole, blogging our trip to Kenya thing did not turn out as well as I had hoped. The internet connections were so SLOW that it usually took about 30-45 minutes just to check our email...and since we were paying by the minutes and everytime I tried to logon to the blog site, the computer would kick me off the internet, I determined that everyone would have to hear about the trip when we got home.

It's about 3 1/2 weeks later and I'm sure everyone I know is sick of hearing about the trip to Kenya. So enough about that.

I am exhausted today. Since we have become adults, my younger sister and I have several new Christmas traditions. As soon as I arrive at the house for Christmas we begin having "rounds" of presents. That means when one of us decides it's time to open a present, we declare a "round." This usually happens a couple of times a day (each of us taking a turn declaring a "round"). Then by around 9 or 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve we are tired of waiting for Santa to come and since there are no children involved, we just open all the presents. Then we play PS2 games all night and make our mom make pancakes at midnight. Consequently, (since not only did we play PS2 until around 2 or 3 a.m. that night but just about every night I was home...4 nights total, I am very tired and just want to sleep. But alas, tomorrow night the New Year's Eve Extravaganza begins...which we use an excuse to just have a 4 or 5 day party. I'm not as young as I used to be and at times like this I really start feeling my age...I mean seriously when did I have to start getting a ridiculously long amount of sleep to function. 5-6 hours is really too much time to waste in bed. And on that note. I believe I will retire for the night...even though it's only 10 p.m. shocking I know.

African Safari Begins

After more than a year of planning and expectations, we are getting to the final countdown...it's only 3 more days before we go on our trip to Kenya. (Elissa flies out Wednesday and Lisa and I fly out on Thursday.)

Tonight I am just posting our Itinerary and a pre-Kenya picture. Keep in mind that the picture was taken at my surprise birthday tea party. My friends are so wonderful. (And they know me so well...a tea party with FABULOUS china dishes as a gift and we all got to play dress up...two of my absolutely favorite things!!!)

Our Itinerary:
November 8-9 Fly to Nairobi, Kenya via Atlanta & Amsterdam
November 10 Nairobi, Kenya
November 11-14 Safari - Masai Mara (in a tent...the things I'm prepared to do to see lions & elephants!)
November 15 Giraffe Manor (http://www.giraffemanor.com/)
November 16 Karen Blixen Museum & Overnight Train to Mombassa (these are the train tracks that the movie Ghost & the Darkness was filmed about)
November 17-18 Mombassa
November 19-26 Malindi, Lamu, Gedi Ruins, possible trip to Tanzania, snorkeling in the Indian Ocean, Happy Birthday to me, and whatever else there is to do!
November 27 Nairobi
November 27-28 Fly Nairobi to SLC via Atlanta & Amsterdam

With any luck we will be able to find internet access points to load memories, impressions and photos.

Bon Voyage! (or whatever you say when you go on safari)