on christmas day, on christmas day!

Bonnie, here are some photos from today's family gathering at Tony and Laura's!

 

Here we have Sebi and Bert (Hope's sons), Carissa (Damon's older daughter), and Tony.

 

Sebi is 11, Bert is 8, and Clarissa is 14.

 

Clarissa loves spicy food, so Grandpa Tony gave her a box of different hot sauces... and she loved it!

 

She was letting her cousins try them, too.

 

It was quite funny!

 

Here's a photo of Hope!

She's 35 now, and quite a live wire!

I'm sure she's the life of the party wherever she goes!

There she was in a gorgeous brocade dress and what was on her head?

One of those silly animal face toppers!

I loved it!

Here's a father-daughter shot for you.

 

There's Carissa with her dad, Damon, as he is opening the gift from Tony and Laura.

 

Damon is 39 now and will be 40 in March.

 

You can see that Carissa is quite tall, and she's the head of her middle-school basketball team.

 

Bonnie: "Good for Tony having Damon and Hope with him."

Tony has his kids over almost every Sunday for dinner! That's gone on most of this year.

 

Bonnie: "It is great they are close enough to do that."

 

They've really been working on it. Really gladdens my heart, Bonnie!

 

Back to the opening of presents.

 

This time, it's Mary and my brother Smitty.

 

I'm not sure what else is in that basket, but I know that two different types of sangria were!

 

Apparently there's now a white one as well as the typical red one.

 

Laura did such a nice job with those gift baskets!

 

This is one of the few photos I got of her, as it seemed she was always in motion.

 

I call this "the hustle and flow of Christmas"!

 

I can't believe I managed to catch her in focus!

 

She was constantly pulling gifts from under the tree and calling out a name to come get it!

 

Reminded me of Christmases in the past.

 

Oh, here's a nice one, too!

 

Grandpa Tony gave Sebi a beautiful baseball bat and was pitching to him in the front yard.

 

It was great!

 

Smitty was watching them while Mary and Laura were talking in the foreground.

 

Such a wonderful family moment!

 

I'm so glad I was there for this gathering!

 

Good low country boil, too!