Twenty Eleven

This year Matthew and I weren't in a particularly party mood for the New Years celebration, besides that, we hadn't really heard of any parties to go to. We also received an email from Matthew's mom stating that if no one had plans she would love for someone to come over and hang out with her while Matthew's dad was at work. So we decided to ring in Twenty Eleven with the parental units.

I really love spending time with Cynda and Steve. I have realized over the last few years that I am a very lucky girl. Matthew and I get along with and love both sides of our family. We never hesitate to spend time with them and we always enjoy ourselves.

There are typically three ingredients to a Bowen get together: food, talking (laughter/teasing) and games. The Bowen Clan is a clan that loves their games. And I have to say, I am a Bowen! We have our typical favorites: Ripple, Nertz, Presidents and Sequence. But there have been several occasions where new and old games alike have been brought to the table,

such as, Cross Boards, Discombobulation and Chinese Checkers. These last three games were stars of our Twenty Eleven New Year.

As far as the food goes, we enjoyed several appetizers like crackers and chocolate orange sticks. (Cynda and Steve had the orange sticks because a few weeks back when we had them over for dinner we teased them about loving Pete more because Cynda always makes sure she makes the cookies he likes, but this year she neglected to buy the orange sticks) and of course an assortment of sparkling cider.

In typical fashion we all stayed up way too late talking, but in this case Matthew and I planned ahead. In recent years it has been a tradition for Cynda and Steve to treat us to a movie on New Years Day, so Matthew and I had already planned to stay the night

at the Bowen Homestead and combine our traveling powers to the movie theater half way in between Salt Lake and Logan, so we could meet up with Pete and Steph. This year we were privileged to watch Tangled. It is Disney's take of the story of Rapunzel, very cute.