New Year's 2011 Powell Palooza Weekend

We spent New Year's Weekend home in Missoula. Friday afternoon we drove into town and took Jessica home. I was sad to drop her off. I loved having her with us this past week, because she is my amazing little sister and for other very selfish reasons! I came home and not only did she take wonderful care of Addi for over 8 hours each day, she cleaned and cooked dinner! She even had spare energy for sister talk and evening movie marathons! It was amazing!



We spent some time at mom's chatting and opening gifts. We moved into (Yes, it looks like we are moving back in every time we show up for a weekend!!) Papa's and said hello before we went to dinner at Dylan's parents.

On Friday night Jeff and Spencer made ribs for dinner. We ate, laughed and ate and laughed (A Powell family tradition) until Kendall and Josh arrived from Alabama. After they got settled we dove into our Powell Clan Christmas. We gathered in Jeff & Deaette's living room and passed gifts to each other. It had been almost exactly one full year since all of us were together. I just love these people, they are so much fun. By the end of the night Addi had re-warmed up to crazy Uncle Spencer (he named himself!) and was started to understand why he is "crazy" uncle Spencer!

About 1/2 through the night Spencer gave us his gift, a little, yet very important lesson in Australia culture. He fed us TimTams and VeggieMite! Not only did he give us the little Australia treats he made each one of us try them...with every one else watching our expressions and reactions! I really wish I would have been videoing the whole thing. It was one of the most hilarious things that has every happened in my life. The picture don't tell the whole story, unfortunately. Spencer started with Dylan, handing him a little piece of roll with a smudge of VeggieMite on it. VeggieMite comes in a tooth paste looking tube and Australians eat it like we eat peanut butter, spread on toast or rolls for breakfast. Well, we all thought Spencer made Dylan eat dog food by his reaction!! After torturing Dylan with the VeggieMite, Spencer handed him a TimTam. It's called a TimTam Slam -- You bite one corner off each end of the chocolate cookie and use the cookie like a straw to suck warm milk through it. The trick of a TimTam slam is to suck up a little milk then immediately put the whole cookie in your mouth or else it will disintegrate all over everything. This trick was not properly demonstrated by Jeff, as he ended up with most of his TimTam Slam all over his lap!

By the time Spencer made it back to me, Addi was shuttering in my lap afraid he was going to make her do it! The VeggieMite wasn't cheesecake or anything, but it wasn't that bad. It short of tasted fish-like and really, really salty. I have had worse! The TimTam Slam, on the other hand, was delicious and I could have, no that is not true, I did have had several!!!

The very first minutes of 2011 we were posing for a family picture. I was doing my normal annoying camera lady routine, barking orders and telling everyone to hurry so the clock would say midnight! Dylan pointed out, "It's ok. Its not like we can't set the clock back a little bit!" Well, in my world that is not ok. My pictures are authentic and it was exactly the first seconds of 2011 when our family picture snapped!! For several minutes we had to watch Dylan pose with his Australian memento from Spencer, a nice pair of kangaroo testicles. I didn't post the really nasty one....too nasty for my G rated family blog! Spencer and Jeff wont' forget it though!! I know...it's a Man-Powell thing: disgusting, but hilarious!

On New Year's Day we had lunch together at the Chicken Coupe and then headed to the Double Arrow Resort in Seeley Lake for a horse-drawn sleigh ride. It was dumping snow in Missoula, but by the time we got to Seeley the sky was bright, blue and the sunshine was sparkling off the snow. Tug and Willy were very sweet and gave us a great ride through the snow. After spending an hour or so sipping hot chocolate by the fire in the lodge Dylan, Addi and I drove back to Helena to face Monday morning..uugghhh...