Christmas Traditions

Our annual Lin Christmas Eve dinner was a lot of fun this year. My brother, Andy, and his wife, Michaeline, and their 14 month old son, Ethan (aka E2 - since we also have another cousin in the family named Ethan, aka E1) joined us from Wisconsin this year making our numbers at about 30 for the evening, a record I think.

There was the usual spread of yummy food and desserts to start, followed by a few rounds of poker ending with the now annual "Screw Your Neighbor" championship playoff. Yes, the game sounds very unfriendly, and actually, it may be, but it's definitely a riot and tons of fun, especially if you're the winner! This year's game had a record 14 players each contributing 4 stacks of one dollar each. Each player gets dealt one card face down. If anyone has a King, they flip their card and everyone else has to flip theirs and the one with the lowest card (which is the Ace) loses the turn and has to throw one of their stacks of $1 into the pot. If no one has a King, then the person to the left of the dealer starts the round. He/She can choose to keep their card or trade with the person to their left. That next person must give up their card. Then, he/she can choose to trade with the person to their left, and so on. Finally, the dealer can either keep his/her card or take a card from the top of the deck. Loser puts in one stack of $1. Then the deck gets passed to the next person to the left and cards are dealt again. The last person with at least one stack of $1 wins the game and the pot. Sounds easy enough, right? Try it. It's hilarious!

The championship game also is spiced up by the reigning champion from last year who is in charge of also buying a gift basket of goodies to be passed to the winner. Last year's winner was my cousin Min's wife, Cindy. In her basket of goodies this year, she put a $40 gift card to Nordstrom, a $20 gift card to I forgot where, and a $10 gift card to Starbucks. This year, the battle came down to my cousin Pin's wife, Patricia, and my cousin Christine (aka Yo). In the end, Yo came away with the win. Here she is with her winnings: