Here they are, the funny, the pretty, and the obscene:
Waiting for the Christmas Eve festivities to officially start:
(Yes, he’s reading in there too.)
Our beautiful neighbors—no party ever really starts until these guys show up:
Sweet Baby Cal with the former Sweet Baby Vincenzo…
And behind the scenes:
(Get it? Behind the scenes? I kill me!)
The party was too much for Baby George, so his parents laid him on the hardwoods, right next to a super soft blanket for a long winter’s nap:
Awwwww.
Wait-what? Ewwwww!
I have never been more afraid of my BIL than now:
Gitchy goo time!
As the day wore on, we headed to church where things got pretty precise:
And finally…Christmas morning! And miracle of miracles, it SNOWED on Christmas, which never happens here! (Please ignore the smiling child and his gigantic Lego set in the foreground—the true magic in this picture is that white stuff outside the windows.)
Just as exciting, the Beef Stick Fairy came!
Leo got a Picachu that talks when you push its tummy. Leo screams when we refer to it as “Speakachu.” That only spurs us on.
Here is Vincenzo putting his sweaty pre-teen palms to work on a hand boiler:
Then we headed to my parents’ house for the day, which was a blur of present opening, prime rib eating, child tormenting, snowball throwing, and general merriment and jollyhood. I was too busy annihilating the children with any and all forms of snow weaponry I could make, so I didn’t get many pictures of the day. I did manage to get a picture of the kids after our epic snowball fight though.
Er…did I say after?
Hope you all had the merriest of Christmases yourselves. I miss it so!
WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Conveyer belt sushi (I don’t actually have a conveyer belt in my kitchen—we went out)