Christmas Time is Here

This Christmas was relaxing and enjoyable, with abundant time to prepare and celebrate.  We hosted Christmas eve eve on Sunday with the "Rickert" side of my family along with Christina's parents, Joann and George.  Among the Rickert side was PopPop, Aunt Teri, and Uncle Dave, as well as cousins Deric, Spencer, Tyler and his girlfriend Jessica.  Uncle Don recovered from his illness just hours after our party finished, but he had many visitations and he's doing well.  GiGi returned from Florida 3 days after Christmas to enjoy her first big snowfall in many years.

(Sorry, we were so busy we forgot to take pictures)

Christmas Eve was spent with the Sutherland side of my family.  Gram S. and Linda hosted my uncles and aunts (Charlie, Judy, Kathy, John, Diane), and cousins (Brett and Rachel with Justin and Kaitlyn, Sean and Amy, Steve, Jenny, and Ryan and his son Connor whom we met for the first time), and friends of the family (Stan and Linda).  Linda outdid herself again with a back room packed with food and presents for everyone.

Christmas day started off early (I was up first) as Megan calmly checked for signs of Santa's arrival.  First she made sure that we were both awake, and after checking that the cookies and milk were gone and carrots eaten by the reindeer, she slowly approached the Christmas tree.  She was surprised by a baby crib ("I didn't ask for this, but it's cool") and wondered where her most requested gift was: the much anticipated white wedding dress.  After opening several boxes from Santa, she found it!

Later Christmas day we went to my cousin Brett and Rachel's house.  Megan played with my cousin's daughter Kaitlyn and her new American girl dolls and Wii dance game.  Justin built his lego Ninja and played on his new laptop.  Janice, Rachel's mother, showed my how to make a 3D snowflake.