So, as I said before, we flew to Milwaukee to see Mark's family.

As we were unwrapping presents with his family on the evening of the 26th, we had two digital cameras going. So rather than tossing them back and forth to get pictures of everybody, Sarah and I agreed that we could share pictures. So for now, I don't have pictures of everybody.

But here's Sarah, Jeff, and Matt.

I believe Linda was in the process of opening a toaster.

We got Dave some music. Note also the Santa hat on the globe in the background. Gritter tradition.

That's all the Gritter pictures that turned out okay. Well, there were others, but they were pretty much the same as these: Linda opening something, Dave examining something, Sarah, Jeff, and Matt in a row. But now! Sarah has some new ones for me. Hurrah, Sarah!

Typical Christmas stuff for us. Also good.

We introduced Matt to Alan Moore comics.

A geek family has definite advantages. Ease of shopping, for example.

This is Dave opening a candle done to look like a bit of birch tree.

Dave found Lin an ornament to match her big present: a luxurious patterned rug for her (huge) bathroom floor.

I wasn't the only one to have a Dumas Christmas. Matt is also fond of the swashing and the buckling.

How well this one shows, I'm not sure. It's a shot glass from Calvin College's bookstore, clearly labeled "toothpick holder." Because, you know, nobody shopping at Calvin's bookstore would ever want to actually serve a shot of anything.

Right. Well, Dan has the opportunity to hold toothpicks and also have four of his friends holding toothpicks with him. I hope they have very clean teeth at the end of the evening.

On the 30th, our old friend Andrew brought his girlfriend Chris over from Madison.

I look happy because Chris brought me krumkake and rosettes and sandbakelser. I don't know what they're happy about.

Seriously, though, we had a really good time reconnecting with Andrew, and I liked Chris a lot, so he can keep her as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure he'll be thrilled that the vote came back this way.

Then there was sparkling grape juice and the Red Green show, and then Mark flew back to California and I joined Timprov at his folks' house in Minneapolis.