Christmas, Part I: Champaign

So, our Christmas week officially kicked off with a trip home to Illinois to spend the weekend with Andy's folks. It was a fun two days of opening presents and getting spoiled,

of discovering Batman,

of eating very well.

I smell meat! I'm Santa, and I smell meat!

We also lazed about and relaxed.


A lot.



The weird thing, though, was that in addition to the usual cast of characters,

we had all these other people show up to celebrate, too.

The house got reeeeealllllly crowded, what with a barber,

a veterinarian,

a firefighter,

a Viking,

an opera singer,

and a couple of superheroes who showed up to crash the party.


That murderous Viking totally drank all our ale, pilfered the meat, and tried to plunder all of the gifts. Who invited her, anyway?