Christmas in Ohio redux

With mom moving to Ohio, i headed north for the holidays.
She and i hosted Christmas dinner at her new apartment so i still got to cook, but my sister's family came over as well. 

Larry, Kris, Matt, Mom, Niki

I love that you can tell how happy the group is to be together because if you look closely you'll see everyone has their arm around or their hand on someone else. :-)
Though that is the "good" shot of us (Matt's friend Jessie came over for dinner, too and he took all the family pics), i love the one below cause i wonder what my nephew and mom are saying to each other at that moment:




Kris and i figured that this is probably the first Christmas we've spent together since about 1987; she is a decade older than me so was married, had kids and moved away before i graduated from high school. It was great to have some sister time; we even went after-Christmas-sale shopping on Boxing Day.

I also got to see my BFF Rea on Boxing Day where i gave her matching earrings to a pair i made for myself and she gave me not only more homemade jellies (huckleberry and lilac!) but some homemade vanilla.

It was a different holiday than what i am used to, but it was relaxing and joyful - not to mention there was a DVD of a fireplace playing all day, which makes me immensely happy.