Christmas Eve Dinner

Every Christmas Eve Thomas' Aunt Lyda invites the family (and some "extended" family) to dinner. We all bring a dish...decided on by Lyda, and stuff ourselves with food and dessert until we roll into the living room to watch football and mingle around. This year Aunt Lyda added a few more invitees to her list: My Mom and brother, Lee...this was a very nice addition and was wonderful to be with both sides of the family! Thomas' cousin, Laura, also brought a new invitee, Ronnie (sp?). This, in itself, was a very fun addition! In bringing a boyfriend, Laura was sure to have Granny-isms flowing, whether she wanted them or not. I will only mention one, since the other is not G-rated and Laura may not approve of me posting that ;) Not long after Ronnie had been there, Granny began telling him that she cross-stitches Christmas stockings for each family member. She goes on about how she used to sell them and also give them as gifts, but she has stopped that now and is saving the remainder for future family members only. She goes on to tell Ronnie that she'll give him a stocking, "but only if he's gonna marry Laura!" Way to scare the poor boy off...sorry Laura!
We started a new tradition at last year's Christmas Eve Dinner...playing Left, Right, Center. For those of you who aren't on the up and up...it is kind of a gambling game...but super fun...and the only kind of gambling I will do...I can stand to lose 3 quarters! You each start with 3 quarters and there are 3 dice. You roll the dice, which contain a dot, L, R, or C on the sides. You either do nothing (the dot...which you want), or pass one quarter to the right, left, or center. Once the quarter goes in the center it is no longer in circulation. Whoever ends up with the last quarter, gets the pot in the center. TJ enjoys playing too, that is until someone else wins and takes "his" quarters! Uncle Mike won the first round, and after a little pouting gave TJ back his quarters, plus one! See how happy he is posing with Uncle Lee...