"I love you" Banquet

Our family's "I Love You Banquet" has become one of my favorite days!  I've posted on how we do it in the past.  Basically, we exchange names and try to keep it a secret.  Then, each person makes a gift for the name they draw.  I love all the creativity!

We also have a nice meal together and then I get my family photo.  We always do a normal, smiling photo.  Then we do a crazy one.  Wouldn't you know it, the normal, smiling one is blurry.  Yup, that's us!
 

Callie and I have so much fun setting the table together!

This year we decided to do a pasta bar.  We had a meat marinara in the crockpot and a creamy alfredo.  I made two kinds of pasta, then we had peppers, onions, bacon, cheddar, parmesan, chicken, mushrooms and olives that could be put on top.  It was so delicious!

This year I drew Silas's name.  I attempted to crochet him a football pillow.  It turned out pretty wonky, so we all had a laugh at that!

AJ drew Callie's name.  He had us all dying laughing at the story he wrote for her about a chicken losing his feathers. It was great!  And then it had a nice moral to the story at the end.  Very creative!

Joshua made me a nice coffee scrub.  It smells soooo good!  And then he wrote me a letter.  It made me cry and boo hoo. It was very sweet and thoughtful.

I somehow missed a picture, but Patrick drew Josh and made him a little platform for the bottom step at his house.  It turned out so great!!

Beth drew Tabitha and made her a beautiful bracelet, then created a picture with the words of a song Tabitha just wrote.  Tears again, it was so sweet.

Tabitha drew Liberty and made her some cereal bars and a coupon for a spa night.

Liberty was very excited to show everything she gets to do on her upcoming spa night!

Brenna made Micah some of her Sweet and Sour Chicken!  It is amazing!  She created a cool take out box for it.  Micah loved it!! (So thankful he let me try a bite!)

My Beth is a peach tea lover!!! Silas decided to make her Peach Tea Ice Cream!  He is getting good at these neat flavored ice creams!!  It was so delicious! (I'm thankful she let me try a bite!)

Callie and Micah drew AJ and Brenna.  They made a menu for a date night for them in the future where they will cook them a romantic meal and serve them their meal. That should be fun!

Liberty drew her Pops name and made him some of the most yummiest brownies!  They had a cheesecake swirl and they were good!! (I'm glad he gave me a taste!)

And Freedom and Victory drew each other.  Tabitha helped Freedom make Victory some edible playdough, then did the same with Victory.  They were very happy about that!

It was such a nice evening and we enjoyed eating, laughing and giving...it doesn't get much better than that!