Christmas Day

Christmas morning.  Shane wasn't feeling great but was able to put on a great face

Jesse got a cupping set

We fooled Shane badly with the Xmas Eve gift he opened.  It was a video game, for a game system he doesn't own.  He thought his mom was an idiot for buying a game he couldn't play!  

Not an Idiot!

Luke and Pete Xmas morning, not sure which party invitation they got

White Elephant gift exchange.  Shane made these and Papu ended up with them on the last trade

Hub got toilet golf and nailed it

Cinderella had a xmas gift under the tree.  We opened the gift and it was a pair of shoes so we passed it around to see who it fit.  Surprise!

 D'Alessandros

 Jesse swears this helped his neck

 so addicting

 The ping pong champion!  I even beat Pete who is the 2nd best in his fraternity, he wasn't happy

 Christmas Fondue 

Xmas Eve

Prepping for Xmas Eve dinner

Xmas Eve Dinner
The D'Alessandros flew in from Texas and arrived just in time.

 The family tradition of playing clap

 always exciting

 Mike is undefeated at Clap and he did it again!

 Check out everyone's faces.  We brought out our stem machine and put it on Papa.  He hated it, it feels like you are being electrocuted.   And then Nat said she wanted to try it!  Sick family fun

December

I got the kids and the cat advent calendars.  The kids were more excited for the cat's advent than their own

 The cat absolutely hates hers, she won't eat it

 Getting our tree.  All 3 of them were a little distracted, there were a lot of Pokémon around, hence the phones in their hands.  Jesse has gotten the kids back into Pokemon

cuties

 The cat doesn't like the cold and lays on the heating pad all day

Candy Cane Lane with the Danons

 Somehow the 2 boys "lost" us

Winter swell 

and winter walks

 The 4th annual Gingerbread Contest.  8 families competed this years contest.

 Jesse came in a construction outfit ready to build

 Each family had to present their house with a speech and Shane nailed it.  Ours was a sustainable house modeled after an orphanage and is Gluten, GMO and Dairy Free.  Unfortunately, the judge this year was 7 years old and went for color

 We went with a classic look, it was by far our best work to date

 The Agonias always open up their house to us crazies

24 hours later, Hanukkah time

family bonding, game time

 Mazel Tov

IDs

It all started 20 years ago when I got my 1st military ID.  While the lady was taking my photo I jokingly asked her if I could raise one of my eyebrows for the photo. I had just had surgery on my face and could only move half of my forehead muscles.  She laughed and said sure.  Unfortunately, the picture of the picture doesn't show it well

Costco has always let me do funny picture.  I also know which checkout people actually look at your card when you hand it to them!

Tennis ID card

I got a Real ID card the other day and I know the DMV is very strict.  I decided, why should I try and look good, no one ever likes their drivers license picture.  So i went for the mug shot look.  As soon as the lady took my picture I got a huge smile on my face, it was so hard not to smile.

I wish I kept all my old ID cards throughout the years

Shane

1st JV game of the season and Shane taking the tipoff.  His vertical jump is off the charts for someone who's  5'11 3/4"

He made it 

 Shane's teammates on the bench (left, in pic) were hoping he would do his 1st dunk in a game

 Shane said he footing was off on both lay ups and he would rather do it at a home game. (and then he told me the hoops at Penhi are 1 inch lower)  I love that his teammates are so excited and the whole bench was ready to celebrate

Shane's coach, coach Tyler understands Shane, I think it's going to be a good season