Family Christmas #1

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday! It's now Tuesday and it's hi ho, hi ho, back to work I go. If you were like me, this past weekend you ate way too much and enjoyed spending time with your friends and family. I will do a brief recap of the holidays. First up on the festivities was Christmas with my father's side of the family. I left work on Friday and headed to the big town of Bratt, FL where my parents are from. My grandmother was excited to have a big family get together this Christmas. We haven't done one all together at her house in many, many years because we are usually all so scattered, but this year the stars aligned and we were all able to go. It is tradition that she makes seafood gumbo for Christmas dinner, so that's what we had and it was so delicious. I haven't had her gumbo in years and it was just as good as I always remembered. And of course she had her usual arsenal of homemade fudge, turtles, and other candies. I was in sugar heaven.

Whenever this side of the family gets together, it is usually tradition that the guitars are pulled out and we are entertained by the more talented members of the family. (I not being one of them...)

My Uncle Gary, brother Brad, and cousin Nicholas were on the guitar. And my other cousin Gary Wayne was hammering away on the harmonica.

Guess I should have loaded up the keyboard so that I could jam out with them :-) But I enjoyed the show sitting next to one of my most favorite people, my lovely grandmother.

If you didn't notice my brother's sweet boots, you should take another look. They make me sooo jealous.

And you can tell the generation gap between Brad and Nic (who is 21 years young as compared to us old 30 year olds...)

And speaking of other attire at our gathering that I was jealous of:

Brandon came busting up in there with this shirt on. I almost stole this right off his back. I told him to get one for me, since I think its only fair that ex-BHS FFA Presidents should have privileges to such sweet shirts, even 11 years after they have graduated. If he doesn't come through, I'm hoping my girl Becki who is the Guidance Counselor at the high school will. She said she would hit up the FFA sponsor for me. (I'm lame, I know)
I got to meet Nic's new girlfriend who is super sweet. I just can't believe that he was brave enough to bring her around our motley crew.

For some reason no one wanted me to take their picture, so I don't have that many. I got a lot of this type of thing:

As you can see, I got Nic to cooperate with Julia's help. Brandon however, took more persuasion.

Finally got him! Sorry, Brandon! So that was Family Christmas #1. Stay tuned for Family Christmas #2 and #3.