Christmas Day

The gathering of the Stone clan finally arrived. Was up fairly early, at least for me, to help set up. We decided to have everyone eat in the living room instead of splitting folks up between the dining room and the kitchen. This arrangement worked out well.

We wound up with 13 for Christmas dinner. In addition to my parents all three of my older brothers and their wives were there. Of the next generation we only had my oldest son, Alex, and one of his cousins, Jason. All the rest of the "third" generation were at their respective in-laws houses for the day. As has become a tradition since the passing of Jo's dad, her mother also joined us.

We did have several other visitors drop by throughout the day. My Dad's sister came by early to see him and pick up some pictures she was going to take to their brother. Later in the day, after we had eaten, my youngest son, his "girlfriend" and their daughter, Cadence, came over. This way I got to see all three grand daughters over Christmas. We have not had the opportunity to spend as much time with Cadence, who will be two in February, as we have with the other two girls. She is always pretty shy at first but tends to warm up after a while

In the afternoon, about the time most of the family was leaving, Carrie and JJ came by. She wanted to make up for the previous evening and exchange gifts with us and her grandmother. JJ, short for John Jr., is also kind of shy so he and Cadence were fun to watch as they got to know each other.

Everyone seemed to have a good time this Christmas and we look forward to next year, although it will be one of the other brother's turn to have everyone over.