Just Lauren

Yesterday, Gene and I went to Kaitlin and Kevin’s for an afternoon of Christmas dinner, game playing, opening presents, and eating cookies. I got Tetris Jenga from Kaitlin and Kevin as well as some really cool, colorful socks. Gene got 10 different flavors of hot sauce! Is it surprising to say that I’m actually interested in trying a few of them? Man has my spicy tolerance improved over the years (thanks, Gene).

We played a game of Jenga after opening presents. It’s interesting because some of the Jenga pieces aren’t the one by three classic piece. They’re Tetris pieces: one by one, two by two, and some of the other more interesting shapes. I ended up knocking the tower down but it we got it pretty dang high. It was fun while we played but now I’m thinking about how to turn this game into a geek trivia game as well. Gene thinks I should have the questions written down and if you get the question right you can skip your turn. But I was kind of wanting to write on the Tetris Jenga pieces so gotta get that figured out. Granted, writing on the Jenga pieces would take way more time and effort, so maybe Gene has something there.

After our Jenga game we sat down for a delicious Christmas dinner. One of my (many) favorite parts of Christmas is the potato casserole we get with dinner. I make it maybe once or twice throughout the year so I love when I can have it for Christmas. Along with the casserole we had ham, green beans, biscuits, and some fruit. Mmm it was tasty. Kaitlin did a great job making dinner this year.

Gene and I had brought two of our new games: Love Letter and Forbidden Island, so we played both of those games after eating. If you’re looking for games that are easy to learn, quick to play, and fun, then both of these are great options. Forbidden Island is a cooperative game, which is something I think everyone should try if you’ve never played one before. We won by the skin of our teeth but that kind of made the game that much better. Both games take about 30 to 45 minutes to play and are 2 to 4 players. They were both played on Tabletop which hopefully shows the quality and worthiness of them.

At some point, Kaitlin and I decorated butter cookies. Here are some of the cookies that I decorated. Gene helped out by putting on the M&Ms. As you may be able to tell, I don’t decorate cookies very often. 😉 It was still fun and something I’d like to do more often (although probably not the best idea if I’m trying to stay healthy). Fun fact: these cookies taste so much better the day after they are decorated with icing. So let them sit for a day and then eat them all!

You can see all of the cookies we decorated above. Can you guess which ones Kaitlin decorated and which ones I decorated? I’ll give you a hint, she likes uniformity and is a perfectionist. 😀

It was such a fun and lovely afternoon. Drove home in some serious snow but made it back safely. Got our white Christmas after all, even if it was a bit late in the day. Hope everyone else had a lovely Christmas as well.