Christmas 2011

It is the day after Christmas and our holiday celebration is winding down. It has been a wonderful Christmas, better than I ever expected it would be. We had so many laughs and made so many new memories, what more could I ask for?
The festivities started with the arrival of Alissa and Nathan from Bloomingt0n on Friday, December 23. Mallory came over and we all baked and frosted cut out cookies. On Friday night we enjoyed spaghetti pie and had a nice fire along with some adult beverages.
On Saturday we (John, me, Lis, and Nathan) visited Jack in the Care Center and had lunch on the way home. We spent Christmas Eve over at Kev's.

It was a Blackhawk Christmas for Mal and Kev.

We had so much yummy food and of course, beer and wine.

John and Kev enjoyed some Obama gag gifts.

Our white elephant gift exchange this year was the best ever. Marge got these lovely shirts from Alissa. There were also some very fun gifts from Santa which included a stollen and a back/leg brace which gave us many laughs.

On Christmas Day we had our annual brunch. Lis and Mal were in charge of the donut holes.

Courtney, Paul, and Tizita arrived just in time for the brunch.

Tizita enjoyed opening her gifts. Here are her walkie talkies from Gigi.

We exchanged our "name" gifts.

I got this nice vest from Alissa,

John got camera equipment from Paul,

Lis got this vintage hat from Courtney,

Paul got coffee soap and coffee from me,

Courtney got this cute skirt from Nathan,

And Nathan got a cast iron skillet from John.

We were all so happy with our gifts and this just confirmed our belief that picking names is the way to go.

We also had an "ugly" accessory event this Christmas. We did not get any pictures, not sure why, but it was lots of fun and many "ugly" items were created. I think it will become an annual event, too.

In honor of John's mom, we did a ladies like gift as well as a men's like gift just like MaryAnn always did.
Today, Alissa and Nathan left for home. Courtney, Paul, and Tiz will be here until Wednesday, so we still have some fun times ahead.

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas, too.