December 25th was, indeed, a holly, Jolly Christmas — pun certainly intended! As has been the tradition for the Jolly family since, well, forever, the four Jolly sons and their families have gotten together down on the farm in Chenoa where they grew up to celebrate Christmas as the big, happy family that they/we all are. As in all the years past, there was plenty of love, laughter, food, drink, and this year a new item was introduced to the party — Jello shots! As all the “kids” are now 20- and 30-somethings (there are 9 in that generation), the social activities have definitely changed over the years. It’s been great fun to watch this younger generation grow and mature, and through weddings and engagements a couple of new family members have been added to the party.
Another new tradition was started this year: a present exchange that involved rolling dice to determine what you did with the present in front of you — i.e. exchange with the person on your left, trade with someone wearing Christmas socks, trade with someone older than you, everybody pass to the right — and as an added dimension, many included ‘and take a drink.’ A role of 12 on the dice indicated that everybody had to do a Jello shot and shout “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!” — it was a loud, raucous game that was a lot of fun. Another game was that crazy one involving eating Jelly Bellys, but not the good flavors — this game features flavors like smelly socks, toothpaste, boogers, and dog food! Thanks to Debbie for organizing all of the family fun!
One tradition that is not new is the big reveal of the annual Jolly cheeseball. Tim crafts these gems each year, and they’ve ranged, as you can see from the photos, from snowmen to Christmas trees to ears of corn, and two years ago, a wedding ring which was accompanied by a real diamond ring offered to Kara from Kyle. Our regular readers may recall that a year ago we were all in Florida for Kara and Kyle’s wedding, and to think, it all started with a diamond ring in the shape of the annual cheeseball!
Indeed it was another Holly Jolly Christmas…!
