Various Christmas Celebrations

Before I begin, a note to my family and friends: I love you all.  If you or your child(ren) do not appear on my blog, it is not because I don't love you.  Either I can't post your picture because it violates my policy against posting pictures of other people's children (and in some cases it's hard and/or weird to edit a kid out), or maybe the one picture I have of you is blurry.  Or maybe I didn't get a picture of you because I was distracted.  Whatever the reason, do not interpret your absence on my blog as a personal slight.  

Now, onto Christmas. 

When I left off, it was December 24 and we'd just had a celebration with Bill's extended family. 

My sister-in-law Venessa and I had a nice Mexican lunch on the 24th, as part of our pact to have experiences together instead of exchanging material goods. 

Then on the evening of the 24th, we went out to dinner with my mother-in-law.  I forget what the place was called, but they had old-fashioned furniture there for decor, and they had the BEST roll-top desk.  If I didn't live in Illinois, I would probably offer to buy it off of them (except I'm not really the kind of person who does that anyway). 

We went to church on Christmas Eve at my in-laws' church.

Nathan left some cookies for Santa, as well as a carrot for his reindeer.  Santa wrote a thank-you note:

And Santa also filled everybody's stockings:

One of the more talked-about stocking stuffers were these laser lights that you put on your fingers:

Here's Nathan with his magnetic Cars set:

Now, at this point, Christmas took a bit of a turn.  Bill's family had been passing around a stomach virus, and right after opening stockings Bill announced he had been felled by the bug.  So I had to drive us to my mom's house, then Bill spent the rest of the day in bed. 

Meanwhile, Nathan and family friend John opened up their traditional British holiday crackers, which always contain paper crowns:

Another guest at my mom's Christmas dinner was my grandma's lifelong friend Liz.  Grandma and Liz met in kindergarten, were born 11 days apart, and are still BFFs at age 89.  Sweet, right?

This is my brother Tyler, his wife Kasumi, and their baby girl Syndey (obscured by an ornament per my photo policy regarding children):

I scored a major win on the gift I got my stepdad, a t-shirt depicting his favorite You Tube video:

This is my stepdad and my grandpa on the day after Christmas.  My family traditionally goes out to breakfast to celebrate my grandparents' anniversary, which is December 26. 

They have been married 69 years.  They are cute:

Later on the 26th, we drove south to my dad and stepmom's house.  We always do the celebration with them after Christmas.  This year we did it on the 27th. 

One of Nathan's gifts at that celebration was the Wack-a-Mole game.  Here are Nathan and my stepmom whacking various moles:

This is my brother Brian and sister-in-law Laurin, looking festive.  Their baby Sam is sleeping in the stroller on the left:

My dad and stepmom brought them back a ukelele from their recent travels in Tahiti:

And that's all I have for now.