Christmas Fun

Here are a few pics from the weekend....it was alot of fun. Back in Texas this weekend, it was the 15th annual (is that right?!) VAUGHN FAMILY CHRISTMAS (VFC as we call it; read more about the entire weekend at DV's blog). My parents, my older brother and his wife and three wonderful girls, and my twin brother, his wife and three great boys all got together at my folks' house in Littlefield. One of our traditions is to read the classic book "TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS" and play it with the game where we all have sacks of "treats" and each time you hear the word "AND" you pass your sack to the RIGHT and if you hear the word "THE" you pass your sack to the LEFT...anyway, it's a crazy simple fun game....the more people you got the more fun it is....since we have been in Africa all these years, our participation is to do the reading of the story. Everyone else crowds around a speakerphone and I read the story over the phone. It's a fun way for us to participate (I LOVE hearing all the commotion and laughter going on miles away!) This year, Tori got to join in the fun and do part of the reading herself. She loved it! (The picture below is taken as she gets to start off the story...)


After the reading and the game is finished (everyone opens up the sack in front of them at the end to see what special prizes are in there...everybody "wins" something, but the big prize is a $20 bill!), we pass the phone around and we get to talk a little bit to everyone! I love watching Tori talk to her cousins on the phone (see below)...it's a special treasure to us that, even though Tori's pretty much grown up in Africa, she has a close fun friendship with all of her cousins....in Texas, DC, and Florida! DV/KV must know that Tori is sporting her SUPERGIRL pj's in honor of the idea of talking to Tyler and Colby! (It is way too hot here for pj's like this, but we couldn't convince her otherwise!) After her first part of reading the book, she ran and got her "Santa nightcap" so she could be more festive for the latter part (she loved shouting out the names of the reindeer and reading the big finale!)


In honor of our VFC tradition, we shared the same game with some dear friends of ours who came for a visit this weekend. Murphy and Christine Crowson (and their boys Stephen and Matthew) were former Benin/Aja colleagues who now work in Togo next door. They are on a holiday vacation and they made it a point to come and see us! It's been so much fun to have them here and we have loved all the conversation! Here's a quick self-timer snapshot of us as we get our own game going! Matthew was the big winner with 5,000 FCFA! (Actually that's about $10 in U.S. terms, but still, he was so excited!!)


I had to include this picture....don't think Jonathan really wanted this costume on....it was a big sister idea for sure! But we managed to get a picture (a little fuzzy because it was doing all he could to shake it off)...but we love our little shepherd boy!


On the above picture, you'll notice our stockings....we got new ones this year for the kids. I hung them on the side of our entertainment center yesterday morning....of course I did it in order according to age (Tori, Timothy, and then Jonathan and Lael on the bottom). Later on, I came in and noticed a change. Tori had decided that the GIRLS needed to be together and ON TOP!

More pictures tonight...today is our day off and so we are off to the beach where Murphy and Christine are going to continue their vacation (us, we're just going for the day and coming home tonight).