I'm about to go to my office Holiday party... and leave work for a week after that.. so in case I don't have a chance to pop in here before Christmas... I hope each and every one of you have a wonderful time... and you get memories that you will cherish for the rest of your lives..

Take care and talk to you after Christmas!

Bif! have a nice vacation.

Merry Christmas

aaww thanks bif
you have an awesome christmas and get back to us in one piece!!

Bif. You have a merry Christmas, too, and enjoy your vacation.

See you later!

it's a little late to ask this question, but maybe you'll check this thread when you get back, so i'm gonna anyway...

what are you doing for Christmas, Bif? i know last year you all went to a cabin in the woods & got snowed in & stuff. the year before you went to Boston or something, right? are you just staying home this year, or what?

(i never go anywhere. i gotta live vicariously through somebody)

Hi. Nigel here, dispatching from nowhere. Hope everyone is doing fantastically. (sp?)

Nigel!

i'm a little sore from sleepin too long at a stretch, but other than that, i'm just peachy.

Nigel. Glad you could drop in! I've been doing OK.

I'm back!

On the 18th we had "Christmas" at Jodie's Family... good times... since we all had "other" Christmases to attend, the dinner was fajitas and enchiladas... good times. We had a White Elephant gift exchange... where i got some tools with flowers on them (cute). My sister in law traded me for a funky clock she got. Not bad. For the exchange I bought a 2-disc DVD of Police Academy and a box of microwave popcorn... (the gift had to be $15 or under and cater to any of the adults) My brother in law who always ends up with popcorn (he usually is stuck with the BIG TIN and it's become a joke) picked the gift... it was pretty funny. he's drawn to popcorn I guess. Anyhow.. Marlee loved hanging with her cousins as seen here:


I don't have photos up of the rest of the vacation yet (working on it) but here's what we did.
Monday we boarded a plane and flew to Ohio.. stayed at a B&B Monday - Wednesday... while visiting my mom's side of the family... my parents and sister/husband and my new neice were there when we arrive to visit with my Grandma and Great Aunt... we took a family photo on the 20th. Had "Christmas" on the 19th in Van Wert...

On the 21st we drove to Loundonville to the cabins after lunch... it's the same place we spent it last year... but this year we didn't have 18" of snow and it was much nicer. We hung with my dad's side of the family... (Grandparents, Uncle Tom /Aunt Peg /Cousins Ross and Nick, my godfather)

We took a family photo there on the 21st. It was pretty awesome to get that done. My sister and her husband set it all up.. that was one of their gifts to everyone. They had to have dropped a grand on the 2 settings...

Marlee loved hanging with her cousins (she fell asleep on the plane-ride home saying "hee hee Nick.. Ross... Nick go?") She loves her Papa (what she calls my dad) and had fun meeting all of the relatives. I'm so proud of the way she acted... very good child.

I got to play pool with my dad and grandpa and cousin Nick (the 13-year-old pool shark). Never thought 3 generations of the family would be playing anything together..let alone pool. My dad said it was the first time in 30 years he picked up a pool cue... we didn't do bad, but the elder Claes and young'n ended up beating us in the last game (we didn't keep track of who won all the others.. just called the last game a tie-breaker.

On Friday morning we woke up and decided since we hadn't really taken Marlee outside to the snow we better do that. She was calling snow "bubbles" and was pretty excited about it. She loved it.

Well.. we flew home on Friday... Saturday we went to Christmas eve service in our church and had a quiet "Family of Three" Christmas at our home.

It was odd to be in snow on one day and t-shirt and shorts the next.. but it was cool as well.

It was very nice.. I took over 200 photos.. and they'll be loaded up soon... so I'll share the link when they're up... because I know how much you want to see my family Christmas (if you read this far you've already invested enough time..so you've GOT to see the photos now...

that sounds really nice, Bif.

i love photos, so bring em on!

i took 2 or 3 hundred, but i haven't felt like messin with em yet.

Sweet pic, Bif. I'm glad you had a good time on your vacation.

Merry belated Christmas!