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.

Multi-Kid Blockfest

I took Joshua to this spring's Olathe School District Blockfest. It's held twice a year, and for the fall session I decided to take Clara too.  Julie went with us, and she did a great job helping with the kids, especially working with Clara.  She didn't have as much interest in the blocks as Joshua did, but given her age, that's to be expected.  Much like in the spring, Joshua was mostly interested in destroying towers that I built for him.  This time, though, he did a better job of actually cleaning up at the end, which was more than pretty much any other kid was willing to do.

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.

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.

Family Fireworks

Now that Julie and Andrew live in Olathe, it's easier for us to do things with them.  Because both of our families were planning to go to the same fireworks show (at the Great Mall), we decided to make an event of it.  They came over in the evening, and we grilled and had time to hang out, and then we drove over to the Great Mall for the show.  Even though there were already tons of cars there, we were able to find a great spot that had room for us to set up chairs and also gave us an excellent view of the show.  Joshua was a little scared at first, so he and Meghan went to sit in the car for a few minutes, but then he got brave and wanted to sit outside again.  Clara enjoyed the entire show and watched intently, unfazed by the noise.  Because that's how Joshua was last year, we're guessing next year will be Clara's turn to have a little time in the car.

Dinner with G&G at OG

My grandparents were in town for the Clara's finalization party, but they were able to stay in Lawrence for a few more days.  Mom and Julie were scheduled to come to our house today to watch Joshua and Clara while Meghan worked, but since they were in town, they came with her so they could spend more time with everyone.  I love seeing them but don't get very many chances to do so.  So I was very excited that they were able to come over, and even better that, stay for dinner.  We all went out to Olive Garden and had a great dinner.

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.