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.

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.

Good-Bye Lawrence, Hello Olathe

Julie and Andrew recently purchased their first house.  Today was their scheduled moving day to move their household goods from their apartment in Lawrence to their new house in Olathe.  The moving crew consisted of me, Andrew, Julie, Kirk, Joanna, Matt, Abby, and Julie's friend Rachel.  It was a long day, but we got them moved, and Meghan and I are really excited that they live so close to us now.  Oh, and we also learned a valuable lesson: it's worth the extra money to pay for U-Haul.  With Budget, it's not that you get what you pay for, it's that you get less than you pay for.