Best White Elephant Gift

Just before I had baby Noah, my brother Ian moved up to Provo, Utah.  I was thrilled since the rest of my family was a nine hour car ride away.  Shortly thereafter, he married and brought his wife, Serena up as well.  I always dreaded the day they would graduate, as I figured they would go back to California, but thankfully that hasn't happened. 

They lived in the same apartment complex as us when they were first married, and then about a year later, they moved nearby to some townhomes, where we followed them several months later.  It was wonderful to live so close to them.

Several years later, when they moved about 35-40 minutes away, it was hard.  I missed being able to knock on their door and just go for a walk or hang out or have an impromptu potluck dinner.  We went through some hard times where the combo of skyrocketing gas prices and a meager budget made it difficult for us to go visit frequently. 

Then at the beginning of this year, they moved.  It was now only a 20 minute drive to visit each other!  I was thrilled!  20 minutes felt like a dream. 

And then 11 months later, we moved and now we are about 10-12 minutes drive away from each other.  It feels so easy.  I am thrilled we live close again to each other.  We love to get together and talk and talk and talk, and the kids love to play, play, play and they promptly ignore us when we say it is time to go home, and they even resort to hiding from us at times.

Still, I am thrilled the cousins love to get together, since we adults love to be together.  The last few years, we have made a new tradition that we get together during the Christmas season and have a little program and exchange white elephant gifts.  It has led to some really good laughs and memories. 

This year, as the kids are getting older, it is fun that we can play games with them- we played a funny game called "Beanboozled" where there are identical Jelly Bellies and it is either a nasty flavor or a good flavor.  You spin to see the color to choose and then you choose your jelly bean and taste to see which you got. It was pretty fun.

The white elephant gifts were fun as well, and this was my favorite:

It was directed at me, if you can't tell.  It made me laugh how well they know me!

I'm so glad we have some family close by, it makes life so much sweeter!