The Rexburg Larsens: The Afters

We had a lot of exciting things happening after Christmas as well - the party just kept going! First was Les Mis with Vadim, Alex and Nana and Papa in Salt Lake (load up the ol' minivan, folks!). The next day we met up with our Charlotte BFFs, Sarah and Steve Cannon and family, who were in SL to see relatives. Yay! Then a drive south to Richfield for Christmas with Gram and Granpa, but everyone was sick so it was kind of low key... lots of Spongebob and just hanging out and cooking good food. Then a run back to SL after church to hang with Peter and Abby and Dave and Kate for a night (Boggle!) before they went their separate ways.

And then....

.... came New Years' Eve, Knight Style! Our SL BFFs, Spencer and Christy Knight, invited us over for a New Years Sleepover and game night in the style of our old hangouts we'd have when Maggie and Rachel were only wee kidlets. Only this is Spencer we're talking about, and he never does anything half out. Not only did we have delicious Bombay House food for dinner, but there was a complete written agenda. First was games, with prizes of course. White House Bingo, Brain Quest, Laser Tag (yes he has his own sets), Wii games, puzzles, and a pinata for crying out loud! Not to mention sparklers, 24 cans of silly string for a massive silly string battle in the cul-de-sac, and an exciting semi-legal fireworks display.

The food was to die for, of course. Homemade fudge (Spencer), caramel apples (me), spinach artichoke dip (Christy) and loads of sweets for the kiddies. Yes, we like to eat well!

We have played Acquire with the Knights numerous times, and each time either Spencer or Christy has won. This time, I WON! Ha! a first. I was very proud. And I felt very rich too. Too bad it was just paper money...

Not just your ordinary sparklers!

Silly string fight! And to end it all, we let the kids stay up playing on the ipads with each other until midnight, then tucked them into bed. Then what did the adults do? Get some shut eye as well? heavens no! How often do we get to be together with no time constraints? We went down to watch a Bollywood movie, of course! But we all fell asleep halfway through the Three Idiots. We must be getting old. But we are so lucky, and so grateful, to have such wonderful friends. They bless our lives in so many ways.

On New Years' Day, after thanking and farewelling the dear Knights, we started the drive north. But all the fast food place were closed when we wanted to get food (at 11 AM on our way to Idaho from SLC), so darn it, we had to suck it up and go to Olive Garden (Maggie the Bread Girl's favorite restaurant!) for lunch. It was delicious... and we had a gift certificate! yowza! Note that we are all still in our jammies (except daddy). Oh well. And yes, that is Spencer's bum up in the air - he did NOT want to pose for a picture so we took whatever angle of his we could get!