An early Christmas gathering

So we gathered up the family truckster yesterday and drove down to Columbia for an early Christmas gathering of the Monroe clan. We went to my Uncle Barry and Aunt Holly's house and hung out with two of their three children and their respective others, my mom's sister and her clan, my Grandmother and my brother and my mom's friend John. Around 20 or so people. Nice crowd.

Barry and Holly live in a great house on a lake that they've redone over the years. I could have spent lots of time in their backyard taking photos but we were mostly inside and well- my inside picture taking ability isn't as polished as my outside picture taking ability.

It was great to see my cousin's first born, Heath. He's such a darn cutie and at seven months is already all over the place. I loved watching him shove the jingle bells in his mouth:

Of course any opportunity I have to take photos of my children makes me very happy:

And while I made Riley 'strike a pose' the boys were busy tossing the football around:

Of course I couldn't look at the spectacular view of their backyard w/o snapping a few pics:

And my mom stole some sugar from RiRi :

And we all did a Chinese gift exchange:

While Heath hung out in my present:

And then we celebrated Christmas a little early w/ a fabulous dinner of rib roast and lots of veggies:

Four generation of Monroe ladies: Riley, me, my mom and Grandmother.

Until next time...