We traveled to Minnesota this year for Christmas. My siblings and I surprised our parents with a family photo shoot.
Papa and Oma with their legacy of grand babies.
My family.
It was a joy filled time, full of family memories and wonderful activities. My personal favorite was the sleigh ride Christmas Day.
Uncle Derek, cuzzie Soren and Auntie Mari.
Cydney and Mary.
Goodie with cuzzie Bo.
My parents gave Tuff an air compressor, which would be too big to take back to MN. So I picked one out in MT. My mom made a mini compressor to get the point across. So fun and creative.
***It was at the Hasselberg Christmas gathering that we shared a BIG surprise but we will get to that in a bit.
Other Minnesota activities included a little sledding.
Auntie Cydy and Liza.
Neighbor Keller and Goodie.
More family gatherings. This time with Uncle Dave and Aunt Sandy, and Uncle Joe and Aunt Barb.
We saw many more family and friends dear to us. It was such a blessed trip.
Now for January. We threw a big party for Tuff's 33rd birthday. It was an incredible turnout. I sent invites to a lot of people but only expected about a 50% attendance out of the invites. Think again; I'd say about 80-90% invited came.
Before the big party, we spent some time with immediate family.
The Harris family. A good looking crew.
Uncle Donnie and Nantie (Kassia).
Uncle Roger, Auntie Darlene, Auntie Toni, cuzzie Kimber and Uncle Ty.
Cuzzies taking goofy photos.
I baked my mom's famous recipe, cayenne spiced candied bacon per birthday boy's request.
Happy 33rd Birthday Tuff!
With so many beautiful people gathered it reminded me of the unity and diversity of the Kingdom of God: 1 Corinthians 12:25-27...that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
We felt incredibly honored to celebrate with so many loved ones.
So the surprise?
We also revealed the gender of Baby Harris #3!
It was a thrill to announce, "It's a boy!" But the real surprise was we knew since December 17th (the party was January 23rd). Our guests were unaware of this fact. Somehow we managed to surprise Tuff's family too.
***This was the big surprise we shared with the Hasselberg Family at the Hasselberg family Christmas. They kept a secret for a month. Way to go family!
Some fun helping guests guess the gender using answers to old wives tales.
The guests chose either a pink or blue ice cream scoop and added it to the cone for their guess. Boy was the majority and majority ruled.
Tuff came up with the big reveal moment. Below is a picture of him announcing the plan to the guests.
The plan: We purchased just over 100 blue/pink balloons and filled half of them with glow sticks. Upon the time of the reveal, we asked everyone to gather to the front two rooms of the house. We turned off the lights and turned on Goodie's little disco ball. Then with some help from friends waiting upstairs, the 100+ balloons came cascading down the stairs and flooded the front rooms of the house. It was mass chaos and full of giggles and guesses.
After the last balloon made it down an announcement was made to grab the color balloon that coordinated with the gender guess. That's when we came down the stairs with a giant blue balloon full of blue confetti, Tuff paraded around the house in victory. Then, pop! Tuff popped the balloon and confetti flew everywhere! I mean everywhere. It was ridiculous and certainly memorable for all.
For those who want to watch a video, our friend Richie captured the moments. This video is the 2nd half of the reveal, the balloons are released and we are ready to come down the stairs for the big reveal:
So much fun. Wish you all could have been there too.
Congrats! So happy for you both!
ReplyDeleteAwesome video!!!! Congrats guys!!! ❤️
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