Nick's Pics

As I mentioned previously, Nick Schale was the photographer for the Nicholl Family Christmas.  He did a great job and took a lot of great pictures.  There were plenty of good ones, so many in fact that I couldn’t include them in the original post, or it would have been ridiculously long.  So I’m dedicating this post to highlighting some of my favorites that he took, both the formal and the silly.  If you like his work, you can see more and contact him via his website.

                                                               Some great pictures of our family

                                                            Clara loves being silly with her grandpa.

                                                                           Couples and Families

                                                              Other combinations that we requested

We finished with a round of pictures of the cousins on the couch.  Nick had them make various facial expressions, which resulted in some humorous results.  A funny situation unfolds as it appears Benjamin falls in love with one of Hannah's pigtails.  In the lower left it looks like he's smelling it while Hannah is a little weirded out by it, and then in the lower right he can't help himself and grabs it but then is stunned by what it feels like, or something.  I'm pretty sure that's not quite what happened, but the pictures tell their own story.  Anyway, we were grateful that Ron arranged for Nick to be there again this year so we could have all these great pictures.

A Geographically-Centered Christmas

 Tonight we had the Leach Family Christmas, graciously hosted by Julie and Andrew.  We started off with a great meal that was both tasty AND Benjamin-friendly!

We then went down to the lower level and played, as Kirk was mobbed by his adoring fans.  Joshua's head looks like it's in a very uncomfortable position there, but apparently he was fine, as he later modeled the lasted in fashion-forward headgear.

Benjamin was excited to open gifts and enjoyed his new car that he could disassemble and reassemble with a working drill.

                                                         Hannah, as she often is, was very happy.

                                                Clara got to hang out with Grandma Deb for awhile.

Benjamin chose me to play a game of ball with him, so we kicked the blue ball back and forth for awhile.

We started to get our kids ready to go before we realized we hadn't done a cousins picture, so we quickly took some and ended up with this pretty decent one, despite Joshua's slightly unnatural smile.  Meghan then took our kids home, and I stayed for a late-night game session, in which we played Tri-Bond and also a Telephone-like game that involved alternating drawing and guessing what other people had drawn, and it was really fun.  It was another great Christmas, and as always we were really thankful that Dad and Deb were able to make it down, and that Joanna and Kirk were able to make it up, for us to all have a celebration together.

Nicholl Christmas 2015

Today we had the Nicholl family Christmas, hosted by Mom and Ron at their house in Olathe.

We started the day with Nick Schale taking all of our family pictures, which I'll hopefully include in a future post.  The group picture at the top of this post was taken by him, but the picture here of me and Meghan is one taken with my camera.

Joanna and Kirk were back, of course, and Joshua was really glad to see his Aunt Josie.

We had a delicious meal, highlighted by the always-amazing Honey Baked Ham.  Joshua especially was a ham fiend, tearing through three helpings of ham.

After the meal we did stockings for the kids.  Here the kids excitedly huddle around the tree to see what was there for them.  And then they posed with their stockings, but Benjamin took his label off and dropped it, and the other kids were entranced by its fluttering motion to the ground.
The kids received Royals shirts from Mom and Ron, with Joshua getting a replica of the shirts the Royals players and coaches wore during the championship parade.  He also received a Spider-Man mask from Uncle Brent that he was totally pumped about.

Hannah received a new hat from Uncle Brent that she loved, and she generally spent her time walking around being cute.

For the past few years, we have been making an ornament for everyone and delivering it as part of the family picture wall calendar.  This year we used their fingers to make little snowmen on the ornament and used their feed to make reindeer on the wrapping paper.  They turned out really well.

We had a great time, as always.  I later returned in the late evening to join the game-playing crew for a late night of board games, which was a blast, as it always it.  Another great Nicholl Christmas is in the books.