December Is A Very Busy Month (part 2)

After the Dec. birthday celebration, we moved on to the Dover family Christmas gathering. Mikel's dad and Step mother, and his sister Laurie and Bro-in-law, Rod drive up from Eugene each year to be with us on the Sat. before Christmas. Other family members come from Hillsboro, Tualitin, and N. Portland to join in on the food, visiting and reconnecting. We all live in the same state, but we just don't get together very often. We hold the gathering at our church building since none of us have homes large enough for everyone. It works so well! The kids have room to run and play as we enjoy each others company.
It was an awesome day!














































































One evening, I went out to dinner to Joe's Crab Shack along the Columbia River with Kyle and Michelle, Casey and Roy'l and Marla, (Kyle's mom) to watch the Christmas ships. They were beautiful, and we had such a good time!































































(this is a picture of Casey and Roy'l's "crab pot" and below is my coconut shrimp...yummy!)






























On Christmas Eve, we had my parents here, by brother, Ron, and sis-in-law, Pam, and their son, Ian, my sister, Lorna, and bro-in-law, Tony, and my niece, JoAnna, and her hubby, Zack here for dinner. It was a very pleasant evening...(some of my pictures turned out really fuzzy, but here are a couple that turned out...sorry Lorna and Tony, JoAnna and Zack...no pictures of you...)
























Christmas day began with the Hunter kids modeling their new capes.






































All the kids received pillow pets (from Santa) so we had lots of cuddling going on around here!







































Other Dover randomness...
























































































































(WILSON IS BUSTED!)
































Such a busy time of year...but OH SO MUCH FUN!