Christmas at Our House

 Here are a few pictures from our early Christmas celebration with both sides of our family. We were missing Tyler, Xoie, David and of course Tim. The above picture shows Joe and his gang.

 These are my kids and grands. We missed the ones that weren't able to be with us. The picture just doesn't look complete without them.

 LuAnn brought tiny tomatoes that she stuffed with hummus and topped with little tomato and olive tops. She brought olive tapenade  with crusty french bread. Yum!

 This is grand daughter Lindsay cutting up the Hawaiian bread for her spinach dip.We had everyone bring an appetizer. There was artichoke dip, spinach dip, ham salad, meat balls, shrimp, onion dip, veggies, taco dip, another kind of taco spread, stuffed cherry tomatoes, olive tapenade, cheeses, hummus, chips and crackers of all kinds, and a huge bowl of fruit salad.

 Here's grand daughter Syd with her boyfriend Dave. They look like they are having an interesting conversation.

Our daughter in law, Julie.... with great grandson, Luke. Also in the picture are Charlie Brown and Curious George...who got thrown to the wayside by huggable Elmo later on.

 Here's a picture of great grandson, Drake after he opened his Elmo. Drake is between Joe's son, Mark and grand daughter, Ashley...Drake's mom. Grandson Brandon is on the far left...on the floor.

This  picture is of one side of our crowd watching the end of that miserable Bear game. We are all Bear fans....You can see my son, John on the far left with grandson, Collin over his shoulder in the white shirt. Daughter in law, Karen is in the white sweater.

It looks like maybe the Bears will pull it off by everyone's smile. Joe's son, Dan is on the right.

We had a wonderful day...the weather was perfect for those traveling. The food was great and the company too. We always have fun together...By the way the family is growing...some said  we need a bigger house. My feelings on a bigger place to get together...In a blended family like ours...in a big house you are spread out more and don't get the close contact with everybody. You might not even talk to someone on the other  side of the family. When everyone is closer....conversations will include everyone. It just can't be helped...It's a much better way to get everyone to blend.

Well, our Christmas started out with good food, good company and wonderful presents.  So many new things...books, plants, good smelling things, kitchen gadgets, warm blankies and so much more. It was a wonderful day.

Balisha