Cocktail Sauce, Chili's, Child Labor, Christmas, 'Cats, and Competition

Today was a busy day.  This morning I took Joshua to soccer. On the way home we needed to pick up some cocktail sauce for the appetizer we needed for tonight.  Joshua enjoyed carrying it through the store.  He also enjoyed me foolishly letting him hold it in his car seat while we drove to our next stop.  It was closed and sealed, so I thought it would be fine.  But soon I smelled the pungent scent of cocktail sauce, and I knew I had a problem on my hands.  Well, not so much on my hands, but all over his car seat, which through the cleaning process ended up being on my hands I suppose.  We then went home, and since Clara and Hannah were still with Mom and Ron, Meghan and Joshua and I went to lunch at Chili's.  Joshua chowed down on some mac 'n cheese.

We still have some ice on our driveway, and since the weather was a little warmer today, I wanted to try to get rid of some of it while it was easier to scrape away before it refroze.  I used my snow shovel, and I invited Joshua out to use his new snow shovel that he got for Christmas.  He immediately went for the remaining snow pile in front of our house and went to work transferring snow randomly around the pile.

In the evening we went to Julie and Andrew's for Christmas with my Dad and Deb, my siblings, and our families.  Here Dad spends some quality time with the girls.


We had a really fun evening.  We had great food, and we all somehow managed to cram around a single table without feeling cramped.  Meghan then had to take the kids home to get them in bed, but I stayed to continue the festivities.  K-State's played in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl tonight, though it had a really late start.  Thanks to some technological workarounds, we were able to watch it on the TV, even though Julie and Andrew don't have cable.  K-State beat Michigan handily, capping a season that started poorly but ended quite well.  During and after that we played games, including a baseball trivia game and a fun game called TriBond.  We don't get to see Dad and Deb all that often, so it was really great to get to spend time with them, and it was all-around a really fun day.

Merry Nicholl Christmas

Today we celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family.  Meghan had picked out great outfits for the kids.  Unfortunately, I'm apparently out of touch with girls' fashion, as I totally botched their shawls when I was taking the kids' picture while Meghan finished getting ready.  Once we got to Mom and Ron's house, we got things corrected, and I snapped a quick picture of the grandparents/grandkids while Nick was taking his.  This was a notable picture, as Benjamin has joined the party this year.

We decided to try a picture of the grandkids/cousins by themselves.  This quickly went from not too bad to, well, bad.

Hannah still fancies herself to be a baby sometimes, and she saw Benjamin's baby swing and desperately wanted to get in it.  She happily swung for quite awhile in it.

Clara seemed to have an especially fun time this year.  She got to spend time with various relatives and even got to hone her photography skills when Nick, who is fantastic with the kids, let her take a picture with his camera and then view the results, which delighted her.

We then enjoyed an excellent Christmas meal.  It was one of those meals where literally everything is good.  We had such a large crowd that we broke into two full tables.  Thankfully with Mom and Ron's new house, you never feel separated from anyone else, as all the living spaces flow together on the main floor.  This was one of the reasons they moved, and I think it definitely paid off.

Later we did presents.  The four cousins all received quite a few things, but that didn't stop Joshua from immediately eyeing Clara's loot to see if it was something he wanted to take for himself.

Meghan took the kids home so they could nap, and I stayed for a little longer to play games and to eat shrimp cocktail and more of Grandma's Christmas cookies (this year cooked by Guest Chef Uncle Brent).  It was a super fun day.  I am looking forward to next year's Christmas being less of a reunion than it normally is, as we are expecting and hoping that the parties traveling from Iowa and Texas decrease and the parties coming from within the state of Kansas increase.  Having more of our family closer is always a good thing!  Merry Christmas!

A Bittersweet Celebration

Today we went to Mom and Ron's house for a graduation party for Joanna and Kirk. They've had a big month with Joanna's birthday, their wedding, their graduations, and their upcoming move to Houston. The party was well-planned and was fun. We had delicious Jack Stack BBQ, shrimp cocktail, tasty cupcakes, and more. Kirk's parents were able to make it, which was really nice. It was great to celebrate their accomplishment of graduation, but it was also a little sad knowing it was the last time to see them before they move and that we're only going to see them a few times a year going forward.  She's such a great aunt to our kids, and I can tell Kirk is going to be a great uncle based on the the interactions I've already seen him have with the kids.  We wish they were going to be closer, but we also understand the reality of the situation and that they'll be back some day.  I'm super proud of Joanna for everything she's accomplished, but at the same time it's also a little sad to think that those accomplishments mean my littlest baby sister is now in no way a kid anymore and is an official married, graduated adult.  But I am comforted to know that she's with a great guy whom she loves and that will treat her well.  So we say good-bye for now, but we know we'll see them in a month or two when Julie and Andrew's baby arrives.

Engagement Party

We recently got the exciting news that Kirk and Joanna got engaged and are getting married May 11th. Since they are both in town this weekend, Julie and Andrew had the great idea to host an engagement party today. So after church we went to their house and were joined by the hosts, the engaged couple, Matt, Abby, Mom, Ron, and David. Andrew made some awesome pulled pork, and although we couldn't stay all that long because of nap time, it was a fun time celebrating the big event with our family.  Here the couple poses with Joshua and Clara, and then Joanna shows off her ring with Clara.