Another holiday dinner! Clockwise from left: My cousin Chris, mom, Amy, Brett, Amanda, my cousin Steve and Mer. (If I remember correctly, this is right before we all got into a big discussion about global warming - because my cousin Chris, who is a consultant for oil companies, doesn't believe it's real. Or that if it is, it's just part of a natural cycle and has nothing to do with humans burning pretty much the ENTIRE oil supply that took x years to develop in just the last 100-odd years. Hmmm....)
The next day a bunch of relatives came to our house for Christmas dinner. Clockwise from bottom left: Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Wayne, mom, Aunt Elaine, Amy and Brett. Meredith and I = TOTALLY CROPPED OUT! Thanks, dad! Haha.
Then it was time to head to the living room and open some presents! (It's a long-standing tradition in my house that we open presents that night before Christmas - it was a tradition born when my parents realized that this was a better alternative than my brother and I waking them up at 5am in order to unwrap our loot!).
On Saturday afternoon, Meredith and I took the train out to my parents house in NJ so that we could spend Christmas with my fam! I brought along the Wii so that the whole family could play (which we ended up doing for hours on end). Here's my mom and brother getting ready to square off in tennis. But before they played, we decided that we all needed to...
And then it was on like Donkey Kong! My mom's real-world tennis skills gave her an early advantage - but after two or three games, Brett's video-tennis skills kicked in and he dominated!
On Saturday night my parents came into town for the day! After walking around and having lunch in our neighborhood, we went back to our apartment so my parents could try out our new Wii! My mom actually played a video game and liked it!
Meredith and my mom showing off their flyswatters. Coastal NJ in the summer is plagued with greenhead flies. They bite during the day and it hurts like HELL.
The next morning, we got up bright and early and drove down to my parent's little shore house in Beach Haven West. After dropping off our bags, we grabbed some towels and headed to the beach on Long Beach Island.
