Christmas Eve at Vana, Joe and Jasper's

Vana, Joe and Jasper hosted the family for a feast on Christmas Eve!



We played Apples to Apples








Grandma and Jasper!



What a little elf.



Little Kate had a good time hanging out with Jasper.






Mom brought clam chowder!



Mer made salad...



...and so did Cheryl!



Dennis brought his chipotle dip. Red bowl for spicier, blue bowl for less spicy!



Lasagna feast!! Vana and Joe made a veggie lasagna, Mer made an eggplant lasagna, and I made a mushroom lasagna. Joe also made sausages and pork.



Kayla and Mom!



Jasper was getting REALLY into clapping with everyone.



Look at his face!!



What a ham!



Clapping is the best!



Joe and Jasper.



Lasagna feast!



Time to play White Elephant!



Christmas jammies!



White Elephant!






Cheryl got Jasper an enormous stuffed dog. Iris was like "What the?"



Haha, smelling its butt.



Glockenspiel!



Jamming in his jammies.



Finally, we played a game of butt quarters.



You put the quarters in your butt, waddle over a glass, and see how many you can drop in!



Kayla was the grandmaster champion!









Merry Christmas Eve!

Tracy and Tina's Annual Holiday Party

It's the most wonderful time of the year!! Tracy and Tina's annual holiday party! I made 40 burritos. 38 of them got eaten!



Bob and Summer!



Billie and Megan!




Joe, Billie and Megan!



Unfortunately, those are all the photos I remembered to take. OOPS! Thank goodness Billie took a ton of photos and sent them to me. The rest of these were taken by Billie! Billie and TJ.



Joe and Billie.



Joe, Billie and TJ.



TJ, Megan and Ling.



Cheryl took this one! The happiest moment of Billie's life! SMOOCH!




Cheryl, Randy, Kim and Billie.



Cheryl and TJ smile for the photo as Bob angrily eats a burrito!



Cheryl and Billie.



Billie, Randy and Cheryl.



TJ and Randy.



Ling and Billie.



Party in the kitchen!



Summer, Megan and Billie.



Joe, Billie and Summer.



What's a man like Tracy supposed to do with all that extra savoir faire?



And then Summer murdered me with a fluffy pillow and the party was over.

Happy birthday, Mer!

Tonight we got together to celebrate Mer's birthday! Five days late! It's been a busy week. Mom made oven-roasted chicken shawarma.



Dad and Mom!



Pretending to be grumpy.



Smoked salmon appetizers!



Chicken shawarma, plus spaghetti squash, salad, raita and pita. Mmm!



Mom and Dad have french doors in their dining room, and they call the triangle behind the door when it's open the Bermuda Triangle. Dad got in the Bermuda Triangle and hid, waiting for Kate to notice him.



Hahaha! It's always funny!



Mer made Smitten Kitchen's Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake!



NAILED IT!



Kate put the candles in.



Grandpa lit them!



Happy birthday to Mer...



Happy birthday tooooo Merrrrr.....



Look at that rogue candle!! I think it enveloped the spirit of the candle next to it.



Make a wish!






Mmmm. Happy birthday, sissie! I hope you have a fantastic year!

Annual Christmas shopping trip

This weekend, Mom, Mer and I went to Columbus for our annual Christmas shopping overnight trip! We started things off with lunch at Bon Vie. French onion soup and wedge salads! Yum!



Let's do some shopping!



Mer and Mom!



Mom modeling Sears catalog poses in Sur La Table.



Sell it!



We made reservations at Brio, since that's where we usually go for dinner. But first, we stopped at McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant for a cocktail. While we were there, our cocktail waiter convinced us to stay for dinner! He asked where our reservations were and we told him, and he said, "Brio sucks! I used to work there." Hahaha. We ended up staying and having a delicious seafood meal. I didn't take any photos. Oops!

On the way home, we stopped at BrewDog DogTap in Canal Winchester for lunch. The beer and food was delicious!



Ladies, put those smartphones away!



Mmm, giant soft pretzel with beer cheese dip, and coriander-turmeric dip.



Cauliflower wings! These were spicy, and amazing.



Oven charred brussel sprouts.



And tempura fried fish tacos! We shared everything, and it was all delicious.