Since it can be hard to tell when I create a new album or upload some new pics I thought I would write a new post to let you know there are some new pics. I also figured that I could tell you how our Christmases were. Yes that is right I said Christmases. I am pretty sure we had four in total, Bluffton, Curtice, and Oak Harbor, Ohio and St. Joseph, Michigan.

We had our Osborne/Benroth Christmas this year the weekend before Christmas. We all traveled to the Menenite home in Bluffton, Ohio so we could spend Christmas with Grandma Phyllis. We had lots of food, a fun gift exchange, and some heated Bingo. It was good to see everyone and catch up. Afterwards my parents, brother, and sister drove back with Colleen, Ali, and myself to our house. My Dad, brother, and I had plans to watch Avatar in 3D the next day at the Dublin theaters just off of Sawmill. On a side-note, Avatar in 3D is probably the best movie experience of all time. You must see the move in 3D if you still can.

The following Thursday (December 24th) the three of us traveled to my parent’s house in Oak Harbor, Ohio for Christmas where we met up with my brother and Sister. I don’t think there was anyway that we could have stuffed one more item in the Highlander, it was packed full of clothes, baby gear, and gifts. There was no seeing out the back windows, that was for sure. (On a side-note I just ordered a new hitch and a 2′x5′ cargo tray that slides into the hitch for the highlander to give us some extra storage when traveling.) On Christmas morning the seven of us each opened one gift before heading over to Big G’s house in Curtice, Ohio for the Hays/Osborne family Christmas.

Christmas at Big G’s house started off with a good breakfast. We had a lot of people in attendance. I will see if I can name them all

Big G, Bumpa, and Sandy with dog Pogo
Mom, Dad, Jason, Milena, Jeanne, Colleen, Ali, and myself
Mike and Joyce
Matt, Mellisa, and Caleb
Mark, Debbie, Devon, and Brad
Melissa and Victor and dogs Misty and Kojack

Hopefully I didn’t miss anyone, if so it wasn’t on purpose, but that is a pretty decent attendance list. After breakfast Big G and Bumpa opened some B-day gifts and Christmas gifts, which was followed by our own version of a Christmas Gift exchange. In this version if you want to participate you bring in a gift (I think it is a 25 or 35 dollar limit, I forget, ask Colleen she knows) with no To/From name and put it in the gift exchange pile. Then everyone that is participating takes a card from a deck of playing cards. The person with the lowest number goes first (Aces are high) and if there is a tie you pick another card. When it is your turn you have the option to take a gift from the pile or steal someone else’s gift. If you are first you don’t get much of an option, you have to open a gift. If you steal a gift the person whose gift was stolen then gets to open a new gift or steal someone else’s gift. You cannot steal your gift back right away and the third owner of a gift gets to keep it, it is no longer in play. This style of exchange has always been pretty fun and always leaves us something to talk about for the next couple years. Like the year Melissa and Victor decided they really wanted one of the gifts. Somehow they had numbers that were next to each other so when it was Melissa’s turn she stole the gift, leaving the person to take a new gift or steal someone else’s gift. The person opened a new gift and then it was Victor’s turn. According to their strategy he “stole” the gift from Melissa which put the gift out of play, locking it in with them. Then essentially Melissa took Victor’s turn and opened a new gift or stole one. Doesn’t really matter, the point is that they came up with a simple strategy to ensure they took home a gift they wanted. And since it was a little sketchy but not illegal it has come up every Christmas since. What is funny about this year’s exchange is that Colleen came home with a gift she took (an OSU Snuggie, or whatever it is called.) This isn’t a first since people do make an effort to buy a gift they think is really good, which means they like it. So it only makes sense that they might choose it over other gifts out there. Either way it always seems to work out well and it seems like everyone has a good time. Later in the evening we traveled back to my parent’s house to open more gifts for our Osborne family Christmas.

I don’t think I actually took a picture of the gifts under and around the tree this year but lets just say it was pretty ridiculous. Needless to say Melina and Ali were making out pretty well, I would say they had close to 50% of the gifts. The girls did have a fun time, that was clear. They had no problems tearing open the presents and moving on to the next. Melina enjoyed looking at what she tore open but Ali was more interested in the actual act of destruction. It was definitely fun to watch and it seems to get better each year. It gets you a little excited to think of what it will be like the next year. Earlier in the week, we sent a 10 inch digital photo-frame to colleens parents with instructions to open it Christmas day. We also picked one up for my dad to give to my mom. What he didn’t know is that I preloaded it with some special pictures. Both frames had ultrasound pictures of our new baby and we thought it would be a fun way for the parents to find out. We actually have a couple of pictures of my mom seeing the pictures on the frame and realizing what they were (I am sure you can figure out which ones they are.) I will have an update with more information about the new baby in the coming weeks. We all had a good time and enjoyed being able to spend the time together. The following day while mom was walking out to get the mail she spotted a Bald Eagle in a nearby tree. I was able to head out and get a few snaps off before he flew out of site. I put these pictures on my Flickr stream of the Bald Eagle. After he flew by I decided it was lucky for me he only decided to scream at me and fly away as I am pretty sure he could have whooped my ass. That is one large bird, it is pretty obvious why it was chosen to represent our country. Anyways back to our 2009 Christmas story. On Tuesday December 29th Colleen came back up from Columbus after working Sunday and Monday to take us to St. Joseph, Michigan where we could celebrate Christmas with Mike, Donna, Ryan, Margie, and Colleen’s parents.

It was a little snowy when we arrived in St. Joe but not too bad. Tuesday night (the 29th) we opened gifts and Ali had her fourth Christmas of the year. She loves each one, it is easy to see. You can see some of the pictures in the photo album, she is wearing a very festive horizontal striped sweater and red pant, but at some point those both come off. Ali tore through her gifts, her mom’s gifts and my gifts. She is pretty much a destruction machine as I eluded to before, there is no stopping her. It was another fun Christmas and it was good to be with everyone. We stayed in St. Joe through New Years and planned on leaving Jan 2. Since St. Joe is located on the east side of Lake Michigan, they are subject to lake-effect snow. For those of you that don’t know what that is, it means that you can get 18 plus inches of snow right before you want to leave the area. Kind of sucks, at least for the guy who has to get it out of the drive so you can leave (thanks again Mike.) If you want to see what that looks like just look at some of the pictures at the end of the Christmas 2009 album.  The pictures don’t really do it justice but it at least tries to give you and idea. Anyways after a lot of snow-blowing we were able to leave and once we made it out of Michigan the road weren’t bad at all. But just a pointer for all you that may be thinking about driving through Michigan in the winter. DON”T DO IT, they have the worst car accident policy, it is call no-fault. That means you can smash into as many cars as you want and it isn’t your fault, your insurance pays for your car and their insurance pays for their car. They can take you to civil court and try to get some more but that is besides the point. So needless to say there are a lot of bad drivers that just don’t care if they hit you or whatever. Second, they do practically nothing to clear the roads. Literally on our drive home it was hard to tell where the road was in certain spots, except on bridges, they actually put salt down when you were on a bridge. But the awesome part was that the second we crossed into Indiana, the road were clear of any snow. Not exaggerating at all, the same road in Michigan was barely drivable over 35MPH (or at all) and when you crossed into Indiana you could drive 70 and not worry at all. That is just messed up, but maybe the state is trying to thin the herd or something. I recommend avoiding the area if you can. Anyways, we had four great Christmases and we really enjoyed spending time with everyone. Thanks to everyone for all the gifts and we can’t wait to do it all again next year. Check out our Christmas 2009 photo album.

Have a great 2010!