Merry Christmas! Part III

And the jingle beat goes on...

Dec. 26, Friday, was another travel day. We (I) got up and at 'em early and loaded up the car by 8:50 to drive the 2.5 hours to my Uncle Tom's house for the Titus family Christmas brunch.

This particular gathering brings together MANY families:

• My Mom & Dad's gang of 17
• My Uncle Tom's gang of 12 (and one on the way!)
• My Aunt's gang of 5 (three present this year)
• ...and my two Grandmas

(Some years, my Aunt Barb & Uncle Henry even make it up with some or part of their family of 8.)

More than a dozen of these folks are under the age of 10, so the volume of this Christmas is deafening—exuberant, but deafening.

My Uncle's house, though, is an ideal spot to host such an event. He has a large condo (if you can call it that) on a golf course in NE Ohio, which has a roomy basement (decked out in Buckeye colors) FULL of fun stuff for kids—big and small—to do. There's a working popcorn machine cart, a mini shuffleboard game (think waist-high), a huge TV with all the latest video games, a full bar, etc. Thankfully, the under-10 crowd usually makes their way to the basement right away, giving the adults a fighting chance at having an honest-to-goodness conversation.

Here's my sister-in-law, Anita, my brother-in-law, Chris, and my two Grandmas—Rosalind and Grandma Dilley—catching up before brunch gets underway.


Uncle Tom served as host and chef. He whipped up endless batches of pancakes, waffles, sausage and bacon, and later in the day made three batches of sloppy joes PLUS several rounds of fresh buttered popcorn. We do love to eat in our family.


I was so happy to see my niece (still love saying that!), McCamey, and my SIL, Emily. And as always, I oohed and ahhed over Camey's unbearably cute pink getup.


Noah has at least one Titus kid in his near age group. Here's Alex(andra) and I stealing a moment on camera. She just turned 1 a few weeks ago.


The present-opening begins! We always start with the kids, this year it was oldest to youngest, I think.


After the kids open their gifts, the men's & women's gift exchanges begin. We have a $20 limit to find something fun (or odd, or sought-after), and put all the gifts in a pile on the floor. The oldest man (woman) goes first, picking a present from the pile. The next oldest has the option to either "steal" the first gift or open another. This year, the men's gift we brought was the big stealer. I'd found an awesome deal on a Buckeye sweatshirt, socks and scarf. Who wouldn't want that, right?

David ended up with a Corona ice bucket and four pilsner glasses, which I know we'll put to good use this summer. I made out great too. I stole immersion and hand-held mixers from my mom (after my SIL, Emily, stole a Mary Kay compact from me). I really needed one of those immersion mixers a few months ago when I made a corn chowder, so I was rather pleased with my gift in the end!

After the gifts were exchanged, my dad talked most of the men into sneaking onto the golf course to play three holes, ending at the green outside my uncle's door. Despite the chilly rain, they borrowed clubs from my uncle and wandered out on the course anyway. Poor David met a bitter end on their last hole. He was walking down a steep embankment when the slick grass took his footing right out from under him. He bit the dust and muddied his clothing all in a 2-second incident. Poor guy.


While the men were busy golfing, Noah was busy making friends with everyone. One of his favorite new people is Auntie Peg, who he loudly calls, "PEG?!" any moment he doesn't see her. Here they are bonding.


And finally, here is a tradition we've done since my generation was little (and likely since my mom's siblings were little). All the kids gather on the stairs for a candid. We couldn't convince Noah and Evan to participate, but the rest of the crew was ready and willing. From the bottom (L-R) to top we have: Emily, Katherine, Reagan, Ben, Alex, Adam, Andrew, Matthew, McCamey, Brendan and Gavin.