Christmas Weekend Part 2: Nicholl Edition

Yesterday we had Christmas with my siblings and my dad and their significant others.  Today we went to Mom and Ron's house to have Christmas with Mom's side and Ron's side.  Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Brent drove in from their respective homes, and Matt and Abby and David were there, and again the same crew from yesterday minus Dad and Deb.  Ron works with a guy who is a photographer, Nick, and hired him to stop by and take some pictures, so we got some great pictures of the various family groups in attendance.

Later some of us played Oxford Dilemma, a board game that mixes Scrabble with Monopoly with a spelling bee.  It's one of my favorite games even though I'd only played it twice and not in the past five or six years.  We learned the spelling of everything from obscure French philosophers to Chinese rivers. 

There was the normal extensive supply of shrimp cocktail, which we made short work of, and a double batch of Grandma's Christmas cookies, thanks to Guest Chef Brent Hall, which allowed me to indulge early and often.  I don't think I ate more than a dozen, but it's possible I did.

It was a fun day, as it always is, and we're thankful we have some great photographs from it.  (By the way, the picture above of everyone around the tree was one I took, so please don't blame Nick for my mediocre photography.)

Christmas Weekend Part 1: Leach Edition

This weekend is a busy weekend, as we have our Christmas with both sides of my family.  Today Dad and Deb are in town, and tomorrow is Christmas at Mom and Ron's house.  We had two different sets of Christmas outfits for the kids, one for each day.  For today Joshua wore a cute little airplane sweater vest, and Clara and Hannah wore matching Santa dresses with striped leggings.  We actually managed to get a decent picture of the three of them, although Clara is attempting to eat an ornament, and Hannah's dress is pulled up a little bit, but all in all, it's about as good as we can expect.

In the early afternoon, Dad, Deb, Julie, Andrew, Joanna, and Kirk all arrived at our house.  We had some tasty appetizers and then played Wavelength, in which Julie and Andrew had a comeback win, much to the chagrin of the hosts.  We would have won, but when I think of prisons, I think of Alcatraz, but Meghan thinks I think of Lansing and/or Leavenworth.  We weren't on the same "wavelength" on that one, and thus Andrew and Julie's Kate Middleton (Duchess of Whatever) answer won the game for them.

Later we had pizza for dinner, but our strategy of cooking two Papa Murphy's pizzas at once by alternating which one was on top in the oven failed, as both burned on the bottom.  Next time we'll cook them sequentially instead of in parallel.  They also failed to put pineapple on our Hawaiian and green pepper pizza, so they gave us a replacement for free, which we happily accepted since it meant we would have a non-burned pizza.  For dessert we had baklava, which Dad had the good idea to get.

Later we gave Deb a gift, but it was more of a joke gift.  Dad historically has wanted nothing but underwear for Christmas, so as a joking jab at him, we gave her some bright pink underwear, since that's all our father has taught us to give as gifts.  But we then gave her (and Dad) an actual gift, which was a framed photo of all of us in the big colorful glasses that was taken when she and Dad announced they had gotten married.  This represented all of us as a family and our excitement of having her as part of our family.

Finally, since that picture didn't have Clara in it, and because Hannah was still in the womb, we took a new picture that has all of us in it.  No silly glasses this time, but it's a nice family picture that is the first one that has all of us including all of our kids.

Hannah Meets Kirk and Aunt Josie

Joanna and Kirk are headed to Manhattan tonight for what we hope will be a demolition of KU at Bill Snyder Family Stadium tomorrow.  So tonight they had an opportunity to come by and see baby Hannah.  They had to overcome some car troubles, but they made it to our house.  Here they are in a perfect pose that looks like it was done for a professional portrait.

Later, Sooners

No one likes the Oklahoma Sooners.  Well, I guess some people like them, because they do have fans, but no one I know likes them, and I'd like to keep it that way.  Pretty much everybody I know is anti-Sooner.   Today K-State had a huge game in Norman. K-State was undefeated coming into the game and is ranked #15, but Oklahoma is #6 and has only lost three games at home since Bob Stoops became the coach in 1999.  K-State was going to need some things to go their way and play a nearly perfect game, and they did!  Collin Klein was great, John Hubert did his thing, K-State won the turnover battle 3-0, and they came out on top, 24-19.  Joanna is in town, so we had her as well as Julie and Andrew over to watch the game.  K-State's season is off to a great start, and I'm excited to see how far this team can go.

Gasoline Starkiss

Joanna is in town for the weekend, and she was desperately needing some niece and nephew time, and we were wanting to see her.  So she came over tonight, and we all hung out for awhile and then went out to eat at Fronteras.  During dinner we learned that her apartment in Manhattan did not burn down, which was good news.  After dinner we went to Dairy Queen where we determined that DQ considers red, white, and blue to be a "rainbow" color scheme.  Good to know.     

More Like the Miami Tropical Depressions

As Jason Keeler's gift to me and the others in his wedding party last year, we went to a K-State game together.  It was a ton of fun, so we decided to do it again this year.  One of the few things I can be thankful to Ron Prince for was an upgrade to our schedule, so we have a home-and-home series last year and this year with the University of Miami Hurricanes, who although they're not what they once were, are still part of college football royalty.  We beat them last year in Coral Gables, so this year the game's in Manhattan, and that's the game we chose to attend. 

It was a beautiful day, and Jason, Nick, Tony, and I left KC at 6:45am to make our way to Manhattan.  We had a little bit of time to tailgate before the early kickoff, and fortunately Joanna and Kirk were able to stop by on their way into the stadium.  The game itself was good, though not all that exciting, but in the best way possible.  We got off to an early lead, and cruised to a 52-13 victory with Collin Klein leading the way, and with a bonus preview of the future as Daniel Sams blazed his way to a couple touchdowns.  And as always, Bill Snyder is a genius.  We ate at a great Jamaican restaurant, Little Grill, after the game, and then drove home.  It was a lot of fun, and it's probably something we'll try to do every year going forward.    

Honeymoon in Olathe

A month or so ago, my dad called me and said he and Deb would be in town in August and suggested that we (meaning my sisters and I and our significant others) get together. We determined the date (today) and the place (our house), and everything was set. Today everyone showed up, and Dad and Deb surprised us with the news that they had just gotten married! Julie, Joanna, and I had long speculated on when they would get engaged and get married and had hoped it would happen soon. But since they weren't engaged, we were all shocked to hear that they had just gotten married a few days ago. But it was very exciting news, as we'd all been wanting Deb to be part of the family, as she's a good match for Dad and we all really like her.  This trip isn't their actual honeymoon, but it made for a really great and happy surprise for all of us "kids", and we're all very happy for the newly-wedded couple.

Farewell! Happy Birthday! Nice House!

Grandma Nicholl is getting ready to go visit one of her other sons in Las Vegas, and we wanted her to have a chance to see the kids before she left.  This coincided with the opportunity to have a small celebration for Joanna's birthday.  So the two events were combined, as Mom and Ron hosted a small get-together at their new house today.  It was our first chance to see the inside of their house (which is quite nice), and it was fun to get to hang out and enjoy the space it provides for large family events, which is one of the main reasons they decided to move.  Here many of us gather around the table, Clara helps her Aunt Josie blow out a candle, Mom cuddles with her sleepy granddaughter, and Ron and Joshua have a great time laughing with each other.

Clara's Finalization Party

Clara's adoption was recently finalized, so we wanted to have a little party for her, similar to how we had one for Joshua.  We made this one a much smaller affair, as it was just family.  Fortunately it worked out that my grandparents were in town, so they were able to be there, which was great.  The weather even cooperated, allowing people to hang out on the deck.  Clara was her normal quiet and sweet self and enjoyed being held be everyone.  Joshua was his usual star-of-the-show self, even though he wasn't the star of this particular show, but that didn't stop him from trying to steal the attention from Clara with his adorableness.  We had a really fun time celebrating the addition of our little baby Clara into our family.

Butyraceous Means Buttery

Usually when Dad and Deb come to our house for our family Christmas, we only have the evening to spend together.  This year everyone was able to stay for most of day today, so we played board games, which is something we often plan to do but often don't get to do due to a lack of time.  We had a lot of people, so we played Cranium.  We split up into two teams, boys versus girls.  Andrew, Dad, and I (and Joshua?) ended up winning (not that I care about winning, of course).  Here the girls work together on one of the challenges.

No One Likes Arkansas Anyway

K-State football had an excellent season and was chosen to play in the Cotton Bowl against Arkansas.  We decided to incorporate the watching of it with the normal post-Christmas get-together that my siblings and our spouses have with my dad and Deb.  So we had Joanna, Julie, Andrew, Dad, and Deb at our house.  We watched the game, but it didn't go well, as K-State didn't play like they had for most of the season, and the 'Cats lost by 13.  Aside from that, though, we're having a fun time, and it will continue on into tomorrow as well, as we have plans to play board games, which we all love.