Christmas
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This year, the tree wound up in the living room. As the most under-utilized room in the house, it was the perfect place for it (it was being used as the staging area for new kitchen parts, but we just shoved that stuff out of the way) |
| This year all of the kids grandparents stayed with us. George's parents (Grammie and Poppa) are on the left couch; MJ's mother (Caky) is in the foreground, green shirt and Joe-pa is on the right couch. |  |
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It took the kids a while to figure out the whole "present" thing. They liked unwrapping and then playing with the boxes (and they were pretty overwhelmed by all the new toys). After a bit, they just wanted to unwrap stuff- here's Caky and Joe holding them back! |
| ...and we got a white christmas! It snowed that afternoon and most of Christmas night, resulting in 10"+ of stuff to shovel... |  |
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It actually looked worse than it was. Mr. snowblower cleared most of it away in no time and we were shoved out by 10 in the morning. |
| Christmas- Part II |
| The other part of the Hill-family Christmas tradition is Italian
Night. This practice started many years ago when we all got together and went up to the Italian neighborhood in Providence and got enough take-out for an army and came home and ate and ate and ate. The shopping trip up to "the hill" was almost as much fun as the meal, and so a tradition was formed. This year, Italian night was being held at our house. Since the snowstorm delayed George's sister Sharon's arrival, we had to hold off until the Saturday after Christmas; then everyone showed up! |
| Sharon, Kimmie and Caley sharing a meal with the girls. |  |
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Everyone hanging out. George's mother standing on the left, Pam and Bob on the couch in back and random nieces and nephews in between. |
| When things slow down, Pop always finds a deck of cards and some marks ;-) Here he is with Donald, Audrey and Mary playing pitch (high, low, jack and game) |  |
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Official Hill family portrait from Christmas, 2002- Click here for big pix |
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Sharon and Donald stayed over again on New Year's Eve. On New Years Day, we put
Donald and Brendan to work. Here we are, unloading a swing set from a borrowed truck- thanks much Donald and Brendan! |
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