During the week between Christmas and New Year’s, James, Chrissy and Alice, who spent Christmas with Chrissy’s family came home for a visit. Aaron and I hosted a true family dinner with all 13 members present and accounted for. We served a fajita dinner and skillet pineapple over vanilla ice cream for dessert. After dinner we opened Christmas presents. It was great to have the whole family together. Above is the first photo of the next generation of cousins. Click on the image to see the other photos from the get together.

Right after Christmas we finally got some real snow. It was the light dry kind that blew around creating huge drifts in some spots, while in other places there was so little snow you could see the frozen grass sticking through. It was beautiful. Here are some photos from shoveling out. As it turns out, this storm was nothing compared to the 22 inches that fell a few weeks later in early January.

The day after Christmas, Aaron and I hosted a holiday brunch at our house. Mom, Dad, Amy, Joe, Justin, Brian, Peter and Maria joined us. As snow fell we dined on Aaron’s latkes, tomatoes stuffed with sausage, pumpkin gingerbread, bagels, muffins, fruit, egg casserole, etc. There was no shortage of food. Mom and Dad and Peter and Maria headed home (hopefully well fed) mid-afternoon, but Amy and Joe and their boys stayed on for dinner and some rock band. Justin on the drums, Aaron on guitar and Joe on the keytar! It was a fun day – check out the photos.

Happy New Year Everybody! Hope you had a nice holiday season. Aaron and I had a great break. We took the week between Christmas and New Year’s off to do some entertaining, spend time with family and friends and to relax. We spent Christmas day at Amy and Joe’s house celebrating with their family and my parents. We opened gifts, enjoyed a few meals and played with the kids. It was great fun to share Christmas with Justin and Brian – hearing about what Santa brought them, reading new books together, playing with their new toys… It was a happy day. Click on the photo above to see the album of photos from our Christmas together.