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.
