Family bingo - it's not about the presents, it's about the game!

Sunday evening we hosted the 2010 Goodman Family Christmas Bingo party!  This is a Goodman family tradition that is taken very seriously - Seth's family is quite competitive.  After dinner, and after celebrating our nephew's December birthday, we get down to business.  Seth's dad is the bingo caller, and this family is never as quiet as when everyone is actively listening to the numbers being called.  Seriously, you could hear a pin drop in a room of 17 people.  (In addition to the pin, you could also hear the screaming of the younger kids upstairs as they played some kind of princess-tea-party-thomas-the-train-monster tag - but I digress.)

The competition is between family units.  My mom came from Charlottesville to join the fun.  Each family brings three gifts, and each time a family wins a game they can go pick a gift.  At the end of 15 games, the person with the most wins gets the trophy.  Oh yes, there's a trophy.  I told you this family takes their bingo seriously!

This year's game was a momentous ocassion for two reasons: 1) we hosted the entire extended Goodman family in our new house (and they all fit!), and 2) for the first time ever, Seth and I won the trophy!  With my mom's help of course :)

Now, of course there's been plenty of smack talk that we possibly cheated, since we were keeping score, or that something was rigged in our favor, but I have to point out that there is a precedent for the hosting family to win the trophy, even several years in a row (<cough> Josh!), AND my score keeping was being moderated by other family members.  I also need to point out that Seth and I have never won, so it was high time for the trophy to come home with us!!

So here we are, basking in the glory of throwing a successful party and emerging victorious from a furious bingo session.  Maybe we'll host it again next year :)