(Written in great detail for the benefit of Mor-Mor and Grandpa!)
This afternoon the entire Wray extended family gathered at Mom and Dad's. It's been a couple years since we were all able to celebrate a holiday together, so it was extra-special. And, as to be expected, the day was not without some craziness and goofiness. Here are some of the high(low?)lights:
The official festivities were kicked off by a white elephant gift exchange to which we had all brought our junk-I-mean-special-gifts. The favorite items of the day were
--a fancy ladylike stocking filled with mint M&M's... and adorned with a picture of Dan wearing only a Speedo (taken on our beach vacation)
--a photograph of Pete and Dan in a questionable pose, in a heart-shaped frame (recycled white elephant from years ago)
--some Aveda hair products.... with a... shall we say, prophylatic (if any kids are reading this, hopefully you don't know that word) item packaged alongside.
--a framed award that John had received in high school -- a "sportsmanship award," complete with a photograph of him running in a cross-country race with, as Pete pointed out, "skinny spaghetti arms." (must have been taken before he muscled up)
--Mom's "Charting a Course" book that she wrote... she's promised to autograph it so it should be worth millions after she dies.
One of the gifts (a broken lamp) came in a huge box, so as you would expect, the box itself became the big hit with the kids. After seeing Rayna get a "ride" in the box, Strider begged for one, too. I saw him get packaged up in the box, and then several of his uncles carried him out of the room..... and the next thing I knew he came back in the room all wet! Apparently they had delivered him to a shower, and then turned the water on. He loved it.
Soon thereafter we sat down for dinner. (The "soon thereafter" part was filled with all the usual hustle and bustle as Mom produced, starred in, and directed the dinner-making production. )
Another remarkable note concerning the dinner: it included a 25-pound lasagna! Yes, 25 pounds. We know because we weighed it. And because we are the Wray family, before we weighed it, we all wrote down how much we thought it would weigh. Guesses ranged from 23 to 37 pounds. James won the contest.
During dinner Dad gave us the assignment of going around the table and sharing our most favorite date we've had with our spouse since we've been married. (The latter part was added after someone asked if our favorite date had to be with the same person we ended up marrying) Thankfully the kids were sitting at a separate table, because some of us were a little too forthcoming with the details of the various dates! Lots of blushing going on in the general region of Karin... and Dad.
Moving on..... After that official conversation, the talk turned to the regular random discussions we have.... and by that I mean we played the "Try-to-talk-louder-than-the-person-next-to-you-is-talking" game. The din got louder and louder, until at one point I lip-read as Mom leaned over to Dad and whisper-yelled, "This is worse than one of those loud restaurants you go to where you can't hear anyone at your own table!"
After dinner we had a nice family Christmas Eve time during which we did some "Adorenaments" that Mom had bought. We took turns reading the different descriptions of Jesus on each ornament and then the heavily tattooed* kids took turns hanging them on the tree. And Colsen challenged Mom to a game of agility, as he ricocheted rapidly from one breakable item to another in the room, testing both her reflexes and knee strength. She held up fairly well, although had to call for backup from Uncle John a few times.
Finally we had a time of Cacophonous Christmas Caroling. Graham played a piano thing, Katie played a dulcimer, and Mom did NOT play her accordion despite the pleading of the group. And as we sang, Strider insisted on singing one measure ahead of us all the way through, Rayna insisted on singing a different Christmas song from whichever one we were singing, and Colsen kept bringing in random items from the kitchen, like cooking spray or salt containers. It was idlyllic and peaceful, as I'm sure you can imagine.
The Frank family then took their leave and proceeded home. Undoubtedly more hoopla and festivities continue on at 9305 Titus Lane, but we will have to hear about them tomorrow. In the car ride on the way home, Strider asked if I could make up a story about Christmas Eve. I told him I didn't know if I had the mental energy for that at the moment, so he said he would do it. He started out,
"'It was just another winter night,' Mary and Joseph thought as they walked through the woods to Bethlehem...." The story went on loosely fitting the actual Christmas story, until he remembered he wanted to make up a story, so then the storyline quickly changed to find the baby growing up to be a man who played football for the Dallas Cowboys, then became President, and then died when he was 93. Interesting.
We came home and had our little candlelight traditions at home.
And then the kids went to bed!
Yesterday we continued our tradition of celebrating Boxing Day (we cleaned out a bunch of stuff from our house, put it in boxes to give away, then assembled a bunch of cookies into boxes to take to a homeless shelter)... 
..but we also added a new feature this year: "Box-Fest!" This is something Katie has introduced to us (although they used to be called "pigfests" -- we think our name is much better). The idea is that everyone comes to dinner with a "proposition" to defend. Then we take exactly 15 minutes to discuss/debate (box) each person's issue. The proposition can have to do with anything concerning culture, politics, current events, etc, so it was interesting to hear the things everyone brought to talk about!
Some of the topics we discussed were:
