Dec. 25: Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas!

Happy 6th Birthday to Duncan James (you can read his birth story here)! The bad thing about having your birthday on Christmas Day is that you get a slice of pumpkin pie with a few candles for your birthday "cake," squeezed in between Christmas dinner and evening games. The great thing about having your birthday on Christmas Day is that 1) you get to share your birthday celebration with the Greatest Gift of all; 2) there is no way that YOU can ever be topped as the best earthly Christmas present ever to your parents and siblings and 3) you get to have your whole extended family there to celebrate. So here are the folks that helped us celebrate Christmas--and Duncan--today:

The matriarch and patriarch: my Mom and Dad, Cindy and Jim

Brother #2, John, and his wife Sharon



Their oldest daughter, Esther (26) and her boyfriend, Jimmy



Their younger daughter, April (23) and her husband, Jeremy



Brother #3, Peter (his wife Nancy didn't make the photos, but she was there!)



Their daughter, Ellen (24) and husband Justus



Their first son, Owen (20)





Their middle son, Isaac (14)




Their youngest, Seth (10)




And of course Jesse





and Laurel



Randy and I were also present and indeed hosted this grand celebration, but it seems we always forget to take pictures of each other. Missing in action are brothers #1 (James) and #4 (Stephen), who are both in New York, and--much to the dismay of Laurel and Duncan--Jeremy's kids, Carena (8) and Xavier (5).



My parents gave my kids this air hockey table for Christmas....


and it was occupied every single minute of the day by some combination of cousins, uncles, aunts, or even grandparents. (And no, we're not leaving it permanently in the middle of the living room.)

Other festivities (besides eating) included our annual Family Bunko Extravaganza, basketball games, and marshmallow gun fights in the driveway. At long last, the company is gone and children are in bed-- Duncan with a fistful of new action figures, Laurel in her new jammies with her new pillow, and Jesse with his new iPod docking station. Randy's settled down to football and I'm about to put my feet up and read a good book. It's been a good day in SmallWorld.