Christmas, 2006

This was the Christmas That Never Ended. Every few days, Kevin and I would pull up our stakes and head out to another family to celebrate Christmas cheer (and collect some great presents along the way.)

Even Baby Shaquilla O'Neala got into the festivities. Not only the recipient of some surprise gifts, she had her own stocking and showed off her kicker's foot a few times for Kevin.

Some highlights, in no particular order:

- A huge Christmas morning at the Ross's, with all siblings and most significant others in tow.
- And, it's not Christmas at the Ross's without the Macy's née Lord and Taylor née Wanamaker's light show and the freaky Dickens Village.


- Finding out Baby Davis-Ross has a bum kidney. (This isn't really true. She's fine, but one of her kidney drainage tubes is a little big, which doesn't cause problems other than UTIs. Our doctor: "I hope I have impressed upon you how not serious this problem is.")
- Reading Kari's email updates from the Congo, which invariably involved some sort of gorilla (or was it guerrilla?) spotting, tale of woe, or mention of foul drink.
- Discovering a bag of long-forgotten TVP in our suitcase. (Which is kind of sad, since I've been looking for TVP everywhere.)
- According to the new James Bond movie Casino Royale, Ugandan war lords are surprisingly risk-averse in their investment portfolios. I suppose it makes sense.
- Deciding what Baby Davis-Ross likes, based on her movements during the activity. For example, Baby Davis-Ross likes The Sopranos, Carolina basketball, and (alas) Polvo. Baby Davis-Ross remained skeptical about real East Coast pizza though. Hmm. I've probably already fed her too much Mexican and Asian food for her to appreciate a $7 cheese pie.
- Abby Gray's Dance Class, in which Kevin was allowed to learn more about Irish dancing than I was because, "he's more Irish." True enough.
- Visiting with the Grays in Columbus.
- Seeing the whole Davis clan, even soon-to-be-members of the Davis clan, except for my punk cousins.
- Trying to convince my nephew how lame Purdue is.
- Coming home! It was great to be able to visit our families and be away for so long, but we were very much ready to get back to our own place.

Now, we have a crazy amount of work head of us, including setting up the alcove - er, nursery - for Baby Davis-Ross.

Photos are posted below, via Flickr. There are more to come, pending the arrival of our left-behind camera.

Christmas in New Jersey

Christmas in Columbus