My family was all home, except Jon and Ryan, my nephews. We enjoyed a day of games, food, and fun. The first game we played was IQ Battle of the Sexes, but the ladies got stomped. I was over thinking every question! We also played Cranium and got beat, which is a game we usually dominate in! It was not our day, we were to tired from cooking. We moved on to play a few rounds of Apples to Apples, and that is when the laughter started so hard that tears were flowing. My mom was hilarious!

Apples to Apples is a game where the judge takes a card that has adjectives, the players throws face down a noun card that will appeal to the judge, if your noun is picked you get the adjective card, and the first one with five adjective cards wins. We started adding our own rule of making up a category for every one to throw down a noun for.

When it was mom's turn, she said her tongue, which is freakishly long. Someone threw in honeymoon, and we all started making grossed out noises, which turned her red. Then the next card was tick, and she read it as trick. I thought we would have to perform CPR, she was so red and laughing so hard. Talk about a Freudian slip!

Jessica's first made-up card was things I like to touch. She couldn't even read the cards because she was laughing so hard. I can't remember them all, but some were: a man, a doctor, The Old Man and The Sea, Garth Brooks, roses - which is the only safe one and she picked it. (It was from G Pa.)

In another round mom had a card that said piranha. She asked Shannon what it said, and Shannon said peer - an - ha'. Paul was sitting next to Shannon, and corrected her. That was another explosion of laughter! (Now you see why we did not win the other games!) When it was Jimmy turn, he made up his category - words Aunt Shannon and Grandma can't pronounce.

I know that these are stories that are so much funnier if you are there, but I had to right about it to keep the memory! And let the record show that I did win one of the three rounds of Apples to Apples!

I was kinda down at the dinner table. I have several friend going through some tough times, and I couldn't help but to think of them. Stacy is celebrating her first holidays without either of her parents, Paul is missing his dad, the little boy I do home bound for is not able to be around extended family so they are celebrating alone, and there are many more, not even mentioning the trouble in the world and our troops and their families.

When you are a kid, nothing seems to get in the way of the festivities, as long as things are good in your area that is all you care about. As an adult, I tend to think of and remember all my friends, wondering if their day is going good and if they are enjoying or at least surviving it.