Friday

 Another great day of family doing a lot of things together.  

Jared brought 4 doz eggs from his grass-fed flock.  This morning I used a doz. of those eggs for egg salad.  This picture shows a comparison of Aldi's best and grass-fed free-range egg salad.  

            

                                                Isn't it amazing to see what grass does for the lowly egg. 

The Carmel grandsons arrived for the day bringing a lot of fun to the group.  We spent some time at the Reef looking at fish.  The ever-present parrot was very entertaining.  The Michigan Russells have several aquariums at their house and are always interested in looking at other possibilities.  The Reef once again came through with a high score. 

  It would seem that the Reef has had a whole shop update with new tanks that look wonderful.  Many unusual fish were seen during our visit.  

The day included many card games with Noah being the all-time winner creaming the rest of us more than once..

                                                                  Stocking time. 

Because Kat worked today at the store and Eric has been fighting a nasty chest cold we did not see them until 4pm.  Then it was time to unwrap gifts.  It was a crazy time as it usually is each year. . The kids are bigger and noisier.  And that was the case again this year.  

                                                Another crazy picture with crazy boys. 

Once again the potters produced wonderful gifts.  Doug came through with a big Rosie garden gift certificate and I will have a new addition to the garden with a dinosaur and dwarfs for the backyard tree.  

It was the favorite pizza for supper and another card game to finish off the evening.  We'll see the kids again tomorrow.  Kat works and I told Eric to stay home and get well.  As a child, Eric's eyes always told me he was sick and the same was true today.  

Tomorrow the Michigan family will go north again back home  Work, high school, and Michigan State are calling them.