Christmas at Grandparents

Chris' mother, Jan, cooks an amazing dinner every Christmas. (Better than any restaurant) She made prime rib this year and lobster bisque soup. Then she sends us home with the delicious leftovers so we could continue getting fat and she wouldn't. (ha ha) There is an ornament hanging from the chandelier that represents Great-Grammy watching over all of us. (she always enjoyed a party)








Chris' parents live in Ann Arbor. We are usually their only family for Christmas, since the other children live far away and come at Thanksgiving. So Jan does what she does best, cook a great meal, and we have a quiet gathering. Aaron wishes his cousins were there, but alas.

He loved his new ballcap and games. Pirates Cove is pretty fun. We are still figuring out Star Wars Risk (not much like the original).

I liked my earrings from Mexico and a pin and scarf from France. (they travel) Chris got some nice sweaters. His Dad got new yoga clothes!
We made his mother a photo book from Thanksgiving.

Christmas at Home

I didn't do a lot of decorating this year -- only two wreaths outdoors. A little on the mantle. And the tree downstairs... This photo makes me look really bad, but Chris picked out such a cute string of new ornaments (he was really proud of himself) that I had to show it. There is a closeup of the blue elephant.

We all enjoyed decorating the tree with our eclectic mix of ornaments collected over the past decades. Aaron finishes it off with real candy canes.







































Aaron, 11, had a lot of fun opening his presents. Video games rule and this age, of course. He especially loved Animal Crossing City Folk and de Blob for the Wii. He likes to help other people at the holidays and we found some things to donate to Toys 4 Tots and also helped assemble food baskets for some people in Saline.

Christmas at Aunt Tricia's

We ate great pizza and played Risk.

The driveway was so bad that Tricia shuttled us in from Moon and State!






It was great to have Stephen back from Brazil!

We missed David, who is in Provo.

Getting the Christmas Tree!

We're all getting ready for Christmas, even if it did rain today. (It was plenty blustery though, I can attest to this having taken Zelda to the windiest spot for miles around -- the Swift Run dog park)

















Aaron's friend Drew came along to pick out a tree. We got a very nice Frasier Fir. Drew climbed in -- why? -- maybe to see if the tree would fit? Pizza to go, anyone?






















This is one of my prized ornaments from my childhood. Which would make it an antique. It is supposed to be a spun-glass bell.























Does Zelda think she is helping? Whenever we go to the basement, she assumes we're there to play with her.