Thursday, December 24, 2009

Cochran Annual Christmas Party!!!!!!!

Sadly I forgot about the camera until the White Elephant, and then it ran out of battery! So then I used Patricia's for a while, and then hers ran out of room! So we had very limited camera usage sadly. Before the White Elephant we had eaten enormous amounts of chili, and caroled in an enormous group to everyone on our street :) Boy those people on our street didn't know what they were getting in to when we moved in! It was a blast.

The mound of treasures (or junk--if you feel like being honest).
The little gals.
Amy and her mother. Amy got knitting needles and yarn! Not a bad thing to get *cough* compared to everything else!
Mrs Lapinski opening something.
Corey chooses his weapon.
Anna Marie herself.
Lovely Amanda.
Corey got some sort of man's shaver kit--I think he liked it :)
Ellie and Amanda.
Adding Abbey!
Mrs Einerson takes a chance.
What do you know about that-an M&M Machine!
Mrs Vaughan taking her time.
What has she got...
An adorable farming puzzle
And a coloring book! What fun :)
Beth got Mary's sassy little gift of a regular sized cowboy hat along with a mini hat! Good one, Mary.
Shanna is opening...
A cereal box! Hmmm
But INSIDE the cereal box, was a lovely painted cross *weird packaging for a cross!*
Mr Lapinski takes stock of his options.
And decides to chance it (as you can see, there weren't a whole ton of GOOD gifts, so not much stealing until the end!).
What will be in the package!!
Mary doesn't mess around but rips right into it bare-handed.
My my--it's a brain hat! For the record, that was like the worse gift I've ever seen at a white elephant, and nobody would confess to bringing it! Rotten.
Our stairs always serve well at parties :)
Pat got a puzzle! She liked it a lot until someone stole it from her.
This poor fellow had the luck to open my gift--a lovely singing bass! I brought him back from last year and it was a riot (I love causing riots).
Abbey strokes her chin in contemplation.
Dad making a speech about how great his un-great item is (in hopes that someone will steal it).
Mercy got a cute little towel angel.
Elizabeth and Ali were on a "team" and so had the joy of picking out a gift together.
Ali liked it, I think (can't tell what it is though).
Another good laugh was when Mrs Cheney opened up Robert's, which included a nice little beanie baby frog!
Good times... Well you will be glad to know, after this blogging frenzy, that I am caught up and all ready for Christmas pictures! Stand by for those, but until then, keep on reading below as I did four posts today and this is the last one, and MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christ is born, glory to God in the highest and on earth goodwill towards men.

MUSICAL--Little House on the Prairie

Felicia and Valerie (dear friends of ours) put together a "girls' night out" on the town, seeing Little House on the Prairie, the Musical! I must say that I wondered how that would go--a MUSICAL of Little House on the Prairie? I am a huge fan of the books though, so thought it must be pretty good (it was awesome!). Anyway, first we all congregated at the W house.

Time for a group shot! Back row L-R: Felicia, Briana, Brooke, Elizabeth, Valerie. Front Row L-R: Katie (me), JoAnna, Laura (the star of the night--Laura is the main character in LHOTP for those of you illiterates reading my blog *wink*), and Kendra.
Try it another way! (remember, you can click on the pictures to make them bigger!).
Sweet sisters in matching bonnets! Quite authentic.
Even Val had one!
Ellie and I.
OK Long story behind this one--let's just suffice it to say that Val was NAUGHTILY planning to prank me when I came early to change from work, but I ended up not coming early so she didn't get the pleasure! HA HA! Better luck next time, Val my friend :)
After chattering at the W house for a while, we drove to the theater (Buell Theater in downtown Denver) for the actual event!
The only picture Fia got in the sacred theater. Let me tell you, those guys were strict, and everywhere! We asked a lady to take a picture of all of us in our seats, and the worker wouldn't even allow THAT! I guess the chairs were really precious.
So out in the lobby we trooped for more pictures than you probably want to see! Well too bad.
The prairie girls show us their bonnets.
Hip and cool Prairie Gals!
OK now all the rest of these are sort of small, so click on them to see. Laura is standing on the chair because, um, her name is Laura. We had a ton of fun!

Smilessss!
I think Ellie forgot what she was supposed to do! Love you E :)
Fia's turn to be in a picture.
Fun.

Then we asked a guy to take our picture--he was only too happy to *wink*
Don't worry-we didn't ask any guy to take this picture! I think Brooke took it. Felicia had this interesting idea that we all pretend to run. Have you any idea how hard that is? Get up off your computer chair and try it (no ACTUAL running, just looking like you are). Yeah, now you believe me that it's hard!
This was a good idea--reminds me of the Bon Trap Family singers in the Sound of Music when they do that cuckoo song.

What are these two going to do next? (One never does know, you know!)
Check out that AIR! We were all going to do this in sister pairs but sorry, you will have to miss me acting like a nut because right after we snapped this picture, the workers interfered again because we were the LAST ONES and they wanted to close up shop. HA HA. We had no idea. We'd been so into taking pics :)
Outside Valerie, against the better judgment of her friends, promptly fell in love with rather a large man who was the doorkeeper. We just had to tear her away, poor thing.
They had snowflake lights on the sidewalk and I think I was the only one enamored with them (or I was the only one who noticed them--who knows?).
That's all for now! Thanks for a "loverly" time ladies :)