Carrie came along with us (she's a Game Geek at heart) and there's a reason she looks scared, other than the fact that she's not excelling at Ticket to Ride.
That guy she's sitting next to is Bart, as in Sgt. Bart. He's a supervisor in Patrol South, and Carrie and I played all night with Bart and his wife, Elizabeth.
Nick got stuck in a marathon game of Puerto Rico, though he didn't complain. At the end of the night, we learned a fun game called Werewolf. We'll teach you some time.
Christmas started last Friday night, when my family (mom and dad, Annie, Pete and kids and Aunt Kye plus Taylor and Katie) crowded into my house. Here are the kids opening their traditional Christmas jammies from Grammy.
You saw the firetruck picture earlier. One of Alexis' other favorite gifts was a game her daddy got her. She and Joe actually get this one, and they wanted to play it over and over. And so it begins...
Christmas dinner. I made my famous special lasagna from the Time-Life cookbook I inherited from my Granny.
My family left Sunday, and then we headed to Alva on Christmas Eve to celebrate with Nick's family. When we arrived, Katy and Tim were hard at work on a gingerbread house. Katy baked it all from scratch. Crafty, that one.
It was hard to keep Lexi from eating the roof.
During gift time in Alva, Lexi insisted on helping uncle Marc-a-moli with the unwrapping
Cousin Jack #2 and Lexi, back-to-back during the gift frenzy.
The last time we saw Sophie, she was just a baby. Now, she and Lexi are about the same size and had fun making trouble together.
We got restless on Christmas Day and made good use out of Grandma's remaining snow. These poor babies lasted about two hours in the Okla. sun.
It was a good Christmas. But we're glad it's over.
In the meantime, you all will be relieved to here that Santa did, indeed, bring Lexi the fire truck she's been talking about for six months. Lucky girl.
Here's the deserter at his farewell lunch at Larkspur, which was quite well attended. Note Diane Lewis to Travis' left. Bob Curtright was across from me.
Here's the other end of the table. For details on the equally appetite-killing cake at the mailboxes, check out Lori's blog.
Saturday was better. Nick stayed home with Alexis so I could attend a couple of Christmas parties and Jaime's stage show at the Orpheum. All were fun, especially the ritzy gala at Wink Hartman's house that Carrie took me to. And yes, Rengers, I apologize for the chocolate in the pocket. You happy now?
On Sunday, I went down the street to Friends to watch "The Nutcracker" with Bon and Lori, which was great for many reasons, one of which was that Hannah Tobias had a role as a member of the Mouse King's army.
Mom and mouse after the show.
Brandon, who lives in KC, and I have been friends since fourth grade. We lived on the same street and our moms were good friends. I met Dirk in high school, and now he owns the UPS store at Central and Hillside. (Bon and Jaime are regular customers.)
Our very nice waitress couldn't help but notice Lexi's affinity for croutons, which she calls crew-TONS, and brought her a plate of her own.
Girl loves her some croutons.
My good friend Amy, seen here with two of Lexi's best pals Harrison and Maddy, has just started blogging today. It's great. Take a look, and I'm sure you'll agree.
Slurpin' soup at the big kids' table...
And at the little kids' table, where I was stuck. That's okay. It was the party table, as you can see.
Not sure what this says about our team, but an unusually large number of party attendees recieved alcoholic beverages as gifts.
No, wait, I know exactly what that says about our team.
They had shallots just, like, SITTING in a basket. No orange mesh bag. Just SITTING there.
Lexi was a little intimidated by the four big kids, but she hung in there the best she could.
After cake decorating and eating, the big kids went to watch a movie and Lexi stuck to me like gumdrop on white icing. She wouldn't go to sleep but was snuggled on a white chair in Audrey's formal living room, watching us play games.
But because she's Lexi, the story doesn't end there. Suddenly, at the height of one of our games, lots of pink and chunky stuff started re-emerging from Lexi's mouth. All over the white chair. The evening was pretty much over at that point.
Sometimes, my job is kind of fun.
Jaime's birthday weekend continued Friday night when, by her request, we had a pizza/Christmas cookie decorating party with Carter, his kids Colin and Catherine, Lexi and Amy's kids Maddy and Harrison.
Carter's buddy Nick and his very grown-up son Grant also stopped by for a bit. This is Jaime's not-so-outstanding effort at a timed self-portrait. Maddy? Catherine?
Maddy is a good cookie decorator, and she kept reminding us it's cuz she's done it before.
OK, so our finished products looked a little more Easter than Christmas, but they still tasted good. Note to self: Get red food coloring.
Then, this morning, we headed to McDonald's for Harrison's birthday party. He turns 3 next week. As you can see, he's money with the ladies. Don't ask me why Lexi has her hand down there. I have no idea.
The hot toy for the 3-year-old boy? Trains, and lots of them.
Full disclosure: This was Lexi's big return to the McDonald's where we had the "incident" back in September. I was hesitant, thinking they'd have her picture posted on the door, but no.
I think the highlight of her day, though I can't be sure, was our gathering at Larkspur tonight. We had a good group of friends there, plus Carter... IN A SUIT!
It's Brian Corn's birthday too, and that's no small potatoes. He's Jaime's boss and a very high ranking member of the Eagle hierarchy.
If it looks like Carter Green is serenading Jaime with the help of the house piano man, that's because he was.
We started with an early morning visit from Kyle, who stayed with us while his mommy and daddy attended horrifically scheduled Saturday morning meetings. Play-Doh was on the agenda.
Kyle is a big Norton fan.
Both kids are Happy Meal fans. And yes, Kyle's shirt says what you think it does. I, for one, am relieved.
On the evening agenda -- poker. What else? Lori and Dale were late because they were at a shooting class. And I don't mean cameras. Turns out Lori's got skillz. Gulp.
I actually won $20 tonight, which is unusual for me. Above you will see the point in the evening when I bailed out -- the point when Dale starts betting the pot on every stinking hand.
