Christmas Week Activities continued...

6 different gatherings in 10 days - 4 of them at our house from Christmas day thru today.

Yes, I'm pretty exhausted and really not too excited about going back to work tomorrow, but there's no way I'd complain with all the time I've had off in December. I was really pretty conservative on the photography this season, but got a few good ones, I think.

I already posted about our delayed Christmas Eve on Saturday, 12/27 when we got to hang out with Amy, Andrew and a few of our dear friends. I actually missed posting our Perkins Christmas gathering on the 26th but will do that now, for those who want to keep things orderly.

We went to my sister, Diane's house, since we did Thanksgiving and most of our recent Perkins gatherings at our house. Her place was pretty "cozy" (read small) and we didn't even have everyone there. I think next year we should do Christmas either at our house or Sharon's since Diane's place is just too small with the tree and all. It also made a difference that it was too cold to go outside...so there was no place to really spread out. But we made do with what we had and I think everyone had a good time. Diane's boyfriend, JD (pictured with the red & green gift bag) made pans and pans of lasagna and even made a veggie one for Ashley. How nice of him. A few of us brought other side dishes and we had a great meal.
Some also brought little gifts for Hope & Steve's "little" ones who are not so little anymore, Kassidy, Jacob & Joshua. It's strange to think they I am their Great Aunt. I thought Great Aunts were always like 90-something. I think they're always confused about my role a little anyway, since they have another Aunt Nancy also. Anyway, it's so fun to see them enjoying their gifts. The little game that Kassidy is so excited about above is from an activity book that we got for her. Makes me happy that we picked something they liked...it's so hard to know sometimes.

We also did a white elephant (food related) gift exchange and came away with a few goodies to share with friends.

We had a random group of folks this year. Good news was that my brother, Pat was in town for the first time in a while and Bunny dropped by as well. Sad news was that Sharon, Dustin, Steve, Kevin, Amy & Andrew and others weren't able to be there this year, so we missed them.

We also learned that Lisa and Hope's grandfather (Diane's former father-in-law) passed away on Christmas Day, which was hard on the whole family since they were all very close to him. He will be missed by everyone. He was a dear man.