Buffalo, Christmas Eve

The tradition in Buffalo every year is for Mary Ellen to host Christmas Eve at her home for the entire family. She puts so much work into the cleaning, the decorating, the food, and everything else, so I just want to thank her for putting on such a wonderful event each year! I don't know how much help Zach, Dan, and I were, but we did make sure that we got out of her way for most of the day. We took Dan swimming at the Embassy Suites with the Tom Doerr family, which tired him out (even more than the koi pond):

While Dan was sleeping, I went out and bought my own Christmas present--a Nikon D3000 camera! I'm still learning how to use all the features, but I'm already loving it. So much better than a camera phone....

When Dan woke up from his nap, he was hungry and ready to see all of his cousins and aunts and uncles! I dressed him up in a Cosby sweater (which didn't stay on for too long because he got a little overheated) and he looked so cute. He ate a little bit of noodle kugel, a little bit of beef on wick (a Buffalo specialty), and a lot of candy and cookies. (Note to self: high sugar intake leads to a miserable night of sleeping and waking for a 16-month-old). Lesson learned!

Lian and Daniel:

With Daddy and Uncle Tom:

Being held by Andrew:

My favorite pal:

Hanging out at the cheese tray:

Playing cars with Davis:

Who gave him that cookie?

As always, the best part of the holiday is hanging out with family. Usually, just the kids get presents, but this year we did a white elephant exchange for the adults. I walked away with a sweet wolf head toilet paper holder which would go really well in an outhouse, if we had one. I'm still upset that someone else got the leopard-print Snuggie. I still love you, Rashman/Doerr/
Kaplan/Keenan/Tomassi/Abels/Schoellkopf/Ziegler family!

Cassandra, Lee, Deirdre, and John:

Beautiful Anna:

Eva, Joshua, and Xander, destroying the attic:

Zach and Lian (with Maddie's hands, texting of course):

Gus, Maggie, Tom, Deirdre:

Deirdre and Maggie:

Mary Beth and Tom Keenan:

A bath to end a fun day: