We sure had a delightful time last night spending Christmas Eve with Chas's family.  There were 16 of us there, all folks I'd heard mention of but (except for his parents, Sue and Chuck) had never met: Sue's sister Bobbi and her family, Chuck's brother Joe and his family.  Grandma wasn't feeling well and had to miss all the fun.

  The hors d'oeuvres were scrumptious, and plentiful, and the wine was flowing.  Check out this 2-fisted drinker...

I "supervised" the pre-dinner pool games, and enjoyed watching a lot of excellent players.  Even got to see Chas' Uncle Joe jump 3 balls (his personal best was over 2.) Before he took his shot Jocelyn was strategically positioned to intercept the ball 'just in case' it decided to fly off the table and onto the kitchen tile.  

Here are Aja and Alex, who both played well.

When things eventually slowed down it was my turn to play - and I absolutely amazed myself by sinking 4 shots in a row.  Which was even more impressive considering that I only play once every decade... or two!  Naturally Tom, Lisa and Alex were all busy talking with someone at the time, so nobody (except Jocelyn, who won the game when I sank the 8 ball) noticed my incredible performance, probably a personal best.

With my phone I took some candids of the kids:

Chas and Lisa

Aja and Alex

Moments before I had missed whatever was so funny, 

so ended up with this more serious shot

It's been a quiet morning - Tom just got up and is on his first cup of coffee, and we have yet to hear from the kids.  I just popped in the turkey, so the house should soon start to smell yummy.  Lisa is making her special stuffing today, and I just need to devil the eggs, and slice/dice the cilantro, cukes and tomatoes for the tabouli, and peel/dice the potatoes - all pretty mindless chores. But otherwise am free (to soak?) until it's time to open the gifts.  Pretty sure Alex still needs to wrap his (once he wakes up today?) but this is the pile already assembled.

One of Lisa's friends has a toddler, and she has been having a very hard time "babyproofing" the tree and gifts.  Lisa suggested doing what we did all those years ago.... put the tree and gifts inside the playpen.  It worked for us, and that mom was thrilled with that idea!