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We worked it out this Christmas break just right so that we got to be with Emily’s folks up until Christmas, and then we drove up to Wisconsin to celebrate with the Flunker side. Let me tell you about the Flunker traditions that we have for the holiday season.
First off is Christmas day. So each Christmas day we all get together for dinner at Grandma’s house. She cooks a huge meal with turkey/chicken and gravy with potatoes and lots of side dishes and the unforgettable pumpkin apple and pecan pies!
We all eat together and then move into the living room around the tree to open up gifts. As we open them up everyone always “balls up” their wrapping paper to turn unsuspecting gift openers into targets and ordinary wrapping paper as projectile weapons. We’ll spend the next 20 minutes not even playing with the toys but just throwing wrapping paper at each other!Then after playing with all the kids gifts everyone heads for home.
The next day is the long awaited Flunker Family Fun Day! It’s basically a huge football game in the snow. We have one Flunker Family Fun Day at Thanksgiving called the “Turkey Bowl” and another at Christmas time called the “Ice Bowl.” Sometimes it’s hard to keep score, but everyone is just competitive enough that we don’t give any freebies. Except to the little cousins when they get to run the ball – and the exciting thing is that Brooke is the only one too small to really play. Everyone else is on a team!
My grandparents have 4 boys, and each of those boys have kids – most of them boys as well (except Kari and Brooke). At the Flunker Family Fun Day you can count on trick plays, and long interceptions, and the uncles checking you on the line, and flagrant tackles, and high fives and celebratory dances, hail Marys and snow plow blocking!It is the FUNNEST day of the year!
The older you get the more you hear about broken families and ruined relationships. That makes my family the thing which I’m most thankful for this year. We are convinced that our family is just the best, and it’s the family that makes the holidays so special.