Wheaton!

Two days before Christmas we headed to Chicagoland for a quick trip to see my mom's side of the family. Very few of them had ever met Sofia, some of them not even Eva. It was about a 15-hour trip, but nice to be there together.

 devouring the pistachios

 

 Grandma and her kids: Steve, Ken, Cindy (my mom), Dave, Beth, and Scott

Besides lots of good food and catching up, there's always a White Elephant gift exchange. This year wasn't as epic as previous ones, but fun nonetheless.

Grandma with a Justin Bieber singing toothbrush. Too bad it would later be stolen from her!

 

 Dave with his amazing prize!

After a few people had left (and kids were in bed!), we played a few (dozen) rounds of BlowBall. Don't know BlowBall? The rules are simple: You may only use your own hot air to blow a ping-pong ball and keep it from coming off the side of the ping-pong table and onto your opponent's side. It was dazzling. Too bad so many pictures were fuzzy!

  

All set up. Janet's looking ready!

 Nick fits right in with the Vander Veen boys.

 a few tears were shed

 ready for it, Brooks!

Hilarious fun doesn't come more easily than that.
And with that, I guess the lateness of the evening set in. These were the last few pictures of that night: