The End of a Christmas Tradition

Ok so I was going to write a slightly more detailed blog about this, but I need to get my cold little butt to work soon so this will be the super condensed Reader's Digest version.

Once upon a time there was a crazy family whose former English major father decided it would be super cool to have a Christmas Spelling Bee. 10 rounds, 10 words per kid, the words started easy and got harder as we progressed. Then at the end we had the bonus word which was SUPER hard and which you had to wager your points like on Jeopardy (I won quite a few times by simply wagering nothing b/c I knew I'd misspell it). Everyone wins a prize, but obviously the champion's prize was always the best. Actually, it was always a game of some sort. ANYWAY, the spelling bee became an annual tradition which lasted for over a decade, and then the former English major father decided to switch from the knowledge of how words are spelled to the knowledge of random trivia...and a much more Jeopardy-like game emerged, which only lasted for 3 years before Dad decided he was burned out and please stick a fork in that tradition 'cuz it's done. So this year was the last one of those. What we will do next year, I do not know--perhaps my sister and I will come up with something ingenius. Or perhaps we will do nothing. Anyway, here are some photos I took to document the experience:

The white board with the categories of trivia ("Nuts" was about the nuts you eat, you perverts...) and where Dad keeps score...

Dad reading a question to somebody--that's Kaj in the chair, but I don't think it was her turn b/c she would be more concentrated. Those are her hubby's legs on the bottom left...

And lastly, my bearded hubby showing my niece and nephew what we won (and apparently giving them a lecutre or some sort of life's lesson as well...). Jacob got a glow-in-the-dark puzzle for coming in 3rd and I got the Game Trio set (yes, that is Jenga that you see, come over any time and we'll play). And, as you can probably guess, since my prize is a game (well, 3 games actually), I won. Yup, with a score of 400 points exactly, I crushed the competition to become the final Christmas Challenge Champion. Actually, I just got really lucky and got a super easy question on the bonus round--plus I wagered a lot of points this time. :-) Anyway, goodbye Christmas Challenge...we will miss your randomness. But hopefully we will find something just as random as a replacement tradition...stay posted.