Christmas with Ratcliffs

It was really strange having this gathering without Nanny.   I think even afterwards, there was just a strange feeling as if something was missing all day.   But we did get a pile of food from her, including her amazing ham that we had for this meal, then for about a full week every morning at our house mixed in with our scrambled eggs.   Magan was still pretty close to her hand surgery, so probably operating at about 50% full happy mode Magan.  

Strangely enough, there are no sleeping Scott pictures in this gathering or the Junkin gathering.   I would like to say it was good exercise or perhaps not eating myself into a coma, but instead it probably had more to do with the eternal energy drink I had after the meal.   There was a lot of fun times and times to chat.   As to the presents, I remember only one, because it was his favorite, and he now uses it everywhere.   Miranda gave Davis a blanket and he loves it.   

Emily's parents joined us on this day and they just blended straight in with no problems.   Pretty cool people produced a pretty cool Emily, and while James and I are both pretty fly for some white guys, her addition to the "married into" club was much needed and probably boosted our club stock up ten fold.   And while I may get in trouble with this one as I don't know where it came from, my eyes still hurt when looking at Marcus' shirt.   

Ruby pulled out the Azul game (which may have been a present) and it was fun playing games with James and Marcia.   I never realized the strange noises that erupt out of Marcia during gameplay, could be a song, a whistle, or high pitched banshee scream, but hey, to each their own.   You should watch a movie with Magan, and see the commentary you get during the show.   Anyway, amidst the singing and gameplay, a thrilling end to one of the Azul games occurred.   James beat Magan by only 1 point.   Then Magan pointed out that he did not count his two negative tiles.   I took the picture below showing Magan proud that she had defeated him...then we realized we did not count his complete row, pushing him back up by 1.   But no one will ever know about that because they will skip this paragraph, and go straight to the pictures...where Magan is holding up her finger on her one good hand in a sign of triumph.