a life more awesome: Thanxmas 11

Thanxmas 11 was at Adam and Kristy's house again this year, since it proved to be such an excellent spot for Thanxmas 9. I got there as early as I could manage, which was probably 2. Only a few people were there, but I cracked open some scotch and started the party right with Father Thanxmas:

Early on, it was a kid party, which I think was done perfectly, since I think all but Jake and Tara had people come pick their kids up after awhile. That way, kids could run around and have fun at a family friendly Thanxmas, then as drinking and rowdiness increased, they were home safely in bed. We brought a bunch of props for a photo booth that was barely used, but those props were quite the hit with the kids.

It made me very happy to see the guitar I stole from someone at Thanxmas 2 being used by the younger generation.

Zayne makes me laugh.

Eventually, it was dinner time, where Adam ate by himself in a giant dining room like a loser:

Everything I ate was great. But those pics aren't worth the blog, because things got more rowdy after dinner:

And very quickly, dancing started happening.

And not surprisingly, Kevin spent most of the night in a wig.

Here's Jake eating with a furry friend.

Here's Tobin with his Thanxmas bottle of fancy beer, where he printed out pics and taped them to the bottle the night before.

Love the effort, but spell Thanxmas right!

Here's where Gina lay on the ground and Wyatt was disgusted by her feet stink:

Seriously, how hilarious is this kid?

Are Naro and Rachael singing to his beer?

Soon, it was time for presents. They were, as always, pretty good.

And apparently hilarious.

Lucic didn't look too psyched about the whole thing, but Kevin sure did.

Man, Tobin laughs a lot.

I can't quite tell what this present is, but it looks horrible and Dan and Lindsay should probably use this picture for their save-the-dates.

So much love at Thanxmas.

This picture is pretty wonderful:

As is this:

I don't remember who ended up taking these home, but I sure hope they are being displayed prominently, since I bought them and they're horrible. Actually, Dustin, didn't you take these? I WAS JUST AT YOUR HOUSE. WHERE WERE THESE?!

I rocked the turtle-tie look that night, made popular by Kevin and Shaun a few years back. I think it's a good look.

Just like this face is a good look for Pog.

When this group used to get together, every party would turn into a dance/air guitar party at some point, and for some reason, we kind of forgot that over the years. This Thanxmas evolved from a quiet, family friendly party with Christmas carrols into just nothing but obnoxious pop music and all of us dancing like idiots in the kitchen. I think it started with Taylor Swift, which I remember being VERY happy about.

I think these next pics pretty much speak for themselves:

Excellent dance moves, Pog.

That's pretty much it. The people who stayed over all went out to an awesome breakfast the next day, which I forgot to take any pictures of. But it ruled. Then I hit up an insanely huge beer store on the way home.

This was a great Thanxmas. Other than some brief chaos when someone had had too much to drink and was apparently only going to be happy if she slept alone in a car, I have no complaints. We sure missed Shaun, Ice and Shannon though. Kids being there early was cool, everyone was in good spirits, and although the photo booth didn't really happen too much and the book I brought that people could sign was written in by like 4 people, it was another great Thanxmas. Personally, I drank a lot of whiskey but maintained a nice buzz all day without going too far, and only smoked once, which then sent me to braindead hilarity mode, just in time for dance parties and a really serious Verve Pipe singalong (that only I sang). And, I'd like to think we kind of brought dance parties back. I know that I'll be doing what I can to make that happen again this year. And whoever brought that Polaroid camera, you did a wonderful thing. I think taking pictures all night then collecting the best into some sort of book would be pretty awesome. I may just buy one myself so I can assure it will happen.