Family Christmas

We had a great time in MN (I know, 2 weeks later). It was cold - and it was really white. But I loved it! Jack loved seeing all of the "'now"! We started the week off with dinner with my mom's side - and met cousin Todd's new fiance (& Matty's girlfriend, too!) so it was fabulous to put the faces to the names! The next day, the 6 of us (dad, mom, Derich, Bryan, Jack and myself) celebrated Christmas before heading out to the farm to see the rest of the rellies. Jack started calling mom 'Ballah' instead of Grandma and continued to call Dad 'Papa' and Derich 'Unc'. (Glad my composition notebook full of pictures it working out.) :)

Dad continues to justify his yearly spending by putting all of his purchases from the year under the tree -- used and wrapped. One year, he unwrapped a book about guns - with a bookmark! - and started reading where he previously left off.

Jack, as usual, hit the motherload with a new train (tru-tru-prain) and some more Little People. He also got his first Legos kit. (God help me.)


These pictures of Jack are my favorite. Dad put the train set in an empty box for Jack. Wonder if he paid attention to what kind of box. Made me laugh - and it will continue to hold Jack's train set. By the end of the morning, Jack was exhausted. But couldn't stop playing. We had our usual Gina Maria's pizza, loaded the car, went over the river and through the woods and to Grandmothers house we went!