The Tea Party
The female staff at AlexLit decided that a tea party was in order to celebrate the season. They cordially invited me to attend. They just as cordially gave me permission to decline, being a guy and all, and presumably not holding much with the whole formal tea thing. They had a point, but the company promised to be excellent, so I decided to accept, and enjoyed peach tea watercress sandwitches, petit fours, and all that foofawlaw.

Travelling Companion
Dominic's been all stressed out about travel since the time we spun off the road into a snowbank and a ditch. I can't imagine why. So, if I was going to disrupt his home-bound bliss, I'd better make travelling as unstressful as possible. So, I set him up with a little cat house with his own familiar blanket that he could hide in. He's all perky in the second picture only because the car is stopped, promising a chance to escape the Rolling Chamber of Terror.

Arriving in Walla Walla
This was the year that my brother Brian, his wife Marissa, and the recently-increased-to-two children Hannah and Samuel would be in town at my parents' place. That'd be Marissa and Sammy on the left. My mom's mom was also here for the holidays, so it was a four-generation household. On the right, Hannah goes to visit Santa Claus at the mall. What more do you need to know?

Dinner at the Country Club
Everybody was pretty well behaved. Well, perhaps except for me, the guy who kept taking pictures. But let's face it, Sammy with his great grandma was awfully cute.

Sammy, Not Quite Walking
Sammy spent a lot of time hauling himself up and wobbling, although he pretty much figured the "wobbling with steps in a specific direction with intent to fall forward" schtick by the time Christmas was over.

Hannah, Not Quite Ginger Rodgers
Hannah, on the other hand, spent a lot of time dancing. With all of us. She refused to hog the limelight; dancing required a dance partner. We all took shifts, but I think Daddy was clearly the most accomplished partner.

Shopping
OK. One gratuitous picture of Sammy and the xylophone, and then some pictures of some beautiful glass for sale at the Carnegie Center. Brian, Marissa, and I were shopping. Obviously, sans the small ones.

Christmas Eve
Scott and Vic, a family photo on the church stairs by the tree, and some time visiting the Henry household. No, I have no idea what Linda Henry and Dad are up to, but it sure looks suspicious.

Christmas Morning! Time To Open Presents!
I cannot imagine how I missed all the Barbie stuff that Hannah opened. But isn't she excited about that sparkly jumprope? As to why Marissa's so terribly thrilled with some boring pads of paper, well, it's kinda hard to explain. Just ask me who Kermit Meltz is sometime.

Friends
Brian, Marissa, and I all had chances to catch up with old friends of ours.

A Visit To Ritzville
The family, en masse.

Four-Wheeling in the Mountains
What's the point of driving a Jeep across the pass if you're not going to go up somewhere hard to get to? This spot was one that I found the spring before. Picture number five shows the fog rolling up the hill right at me. When you see that road, you might wonder why I think this is Jeep country. What the fog hides is the gate that they locked across this wide road sometime before the snow fell. To get here, I had to climb through a ditch and drive along a track in a field for the grain trucks, then down a scrub-covered slope, to get back to the road. But man, was it beautiful up there.

New Years
Mom and Dad's New Year's Eve party, with cootie.

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