A Tandy Family Christmas

Christmas 2006 was spent in Utah with the Tandy family. Everyone was there, and it was very crowded. A houseful of very stubborn and headstrong people is not a good thing. There was much disagreement over the family photo, but we got it worked out. Not what I had in mind, but still not bad. Taking a group photo is a real challenge when you are supposed to be in it. It's even harder to get everyone (including babies!) looking in the right direction and smiling. But I had my trusty little remote (if you look carefully you can see it in my hand, lol), and we miraculously managed to get everyone looking at the camera, or close enough to it, anyway. Amazing. I kinda wish we could all get together when it's a little warmer, though. Brrrrrr, cold!

We had Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve, and yours truely cooked the turkey! It was my very first turkey, and I was very excited. I used hte Stiles method of cooking the turkey upside-down in a turkey bag to drain the juices to the white meat. It was not the best turkey I have ever had, but it was still very good. I also cooked candied yams and cherry yum-yum. Other people chipped in, and there was quite a feast for us. Delicious!

On Christmas morning Santa made his usual visit to the house. Cameron was so excited to see him, he just ran right up and gave him a great big hug:-) Sadly, my camera was packed away, so no picutres of that happy moment. Cameron got way too much stuff, but he loves it all. His favorites are his new Backyardigans video (best children's show, except for Sesame Street) and his Little People farm. But he plays with everything he got, and has so much fun.

The highlight of my time in Utah was when several of us got together aroudn the piano and had our own little concert. My brother Bill, was the piano player, while myself, my other bro Matt and his wife Christina sang along. We started with some Christmas music, which progressed to show tunes and Disney songs. And we made a sartling discovery: Mine and Christina's voices go very well together. So much so that there were times when our voices seemes to become one. I love that. The only down side was that I coud not prevail upon Craig to join us. He has a great voice, but was not in a singing mood that night, due to a cold.

And finally there was the snow. Cameron hasn't seen snow since he was just a teeny baby, so this was really quite a new experience for him. He had so much fun stomping in it, and we taught him how to throw a snowball, which he thought great fun. But we had no gloves, and he quickly tired of cold hands, so we were not able to introdice him to Frosty this year.

It was a short vacation, and we enjoyed seeing the fam, but we are glad to be back to our much warmer home:-)