Neices are great!

We were so glad to have Sam home at Thanksgiving, it had been far tooooo long since we had seen her last. She had the nerve to go away to college, Gonzaga no less - which I am sure my kids will now idolize and expect me to cough up the change to get them there! This is right after she walked in the door!

Maria was awfully glad to have her back as well.

This is Sam's "before" photo. This is on December 23rd, when she was feeling pretty goood. She was a seasoned college person, and had triumphed over her first trimester and had loads of gifts in front of her to open!

This is Sam's "after" photo. It was taken the evening of December 24th, when she felt pretty yucky. I don't even have a picture of her on the 25th, because she felt sooo yucky she couldn't even open her gifts. This is what our Christmas was like. We all looked ok on the 23rd, and by the 25th several members of our clan had fallen ill.

By yesterday, the 28th, we had 10 of the 17 family members struck down with the flu. It was not exactly what we all planned on when we decided to get together for the first time in years- for Christmas. Next year, maybe we'll just meet in August.