Holiday, part II of III

Ahh...another Christmas holiday come and gone.
The entire family on my mom's side converged upon my grandparents house in Amherst, MA for this holiday - 15 of us! It all went off incredibly smoothly, with wonderful laughter & food.



Here are my cousins Tim and Sam, in a blurry picture from Christmas morning. It's the only one I had with the Christmas tree.
There was a little bit of a tussle over baseball allegancies...my cousin Eric lives in Kansas, and as such just doesn't know any better. It's true - he's a Yankees fan. Uncle Russ put his Yankees calendar in the wood pile for burning. Unfortunately Grandpa didn't understand and thought it had just been carelessly misplaced by one of the kids. So he unwittingly saved it from its firey fate.
Post-presents playing outside in the street. Here are four of the five boy cousins (I'm the other cousin, aside from Curren, and the only XX chromosome represented in this generation). Left to right, Sam, Tim, Chris (my brother), and Eric (the misguided Yankees fan who we love anyway)
Walking down to the pond to play on the ice. Left to right, Aunt Patty, Aunt Meg, Uncle Russ, Grandpa, CurrenTed ran into the woods to get one of the fast-flying toys the boys got for Christmas. Russ is ready with his slippers. Shortly after this, Ted was struck in the face with said fast-flying toy causing bleeding.

Tomorrow my brother heads back to Bend, Oregon. On Wednesday I fly out to Bangkok, Thailand to begin part III of III for this vacation season. It's been a lovely trip back east to visit with family and relish the beautiful beautiful New England weather.