Smorby Christmas '09

Ah, the Morby & Smith Family Christmas dinner and exchange. Fondly called the Smorby Christmas. This was held 4 hours after Derek and I landed at the airport from New York. We like to live dangerously.

These boys can clean up pretty nice.


Dinner is always entertaining when you have this many people all in one line.


Tim and Joannie did a great job of packing us all in, though once in your seat, you were stuck until the end of the meal.


Which normally is not a big deal until snickers start occurring while looking in my direction.


That could possibly be because your brother is throwing this...


...into this. Uncle Shane doesn't realize what's coming his way once the tables are turned. I had to just leave my mommy hat at home and just let all the boy cousins and uncles entertain themselves at the cost of a three year old boy. Thankfully he hasn't wanted to repeat this since the event.


Nothing like a dessert that is literally calling your name.


I came to get the cake and found my son just watching it, waiting for the first slice.


He kept asking em if Amy was going to be there. He was overjoyed to get to see his Amy.


Then the opening of gifts begins. There are always some gifts that were given on purpose...


...and then there's the slew of gag gifts. Every year more and more of them turn up, with no one ever being quite sure who provides this entertainment.


At least they make for good laughs.


With now 4 UT grads in the family


we got to see plenty of orange opened up.


Justin says that these hats "are not right". He doesn't think the hair should be coming out of the top.


Justin was quite the helper, always bringing everyone their gift and helping them open them as well. He was a one-man stop.


The laughs continued all night.


Derek and I opted out of the exchange this year, only letting Justin do the honors for the Michaelis family. So we just sat back and wacthed the show.


Justin got himself some Lightning McQueen and Mater houseshoes. Bu the end of the evening, Uncle Steve was helping him roar through the crowd.


Such fun times. As this decade comes to a close, I think of what I was doing exactly 10 years ago, with the millennium right around the corner. I was making memories of my own - getting engaged....