Christmas Part Deux...and Trois...

*for total inclusion in the Three Christmases Tour, you might want to wander back to yesterday's post so that you can be fully apprised on the magic and mayhem of a triple play holiday*

Moving on, we arrive at the Octamom Parental Unit Christmas. My parents had lived for many years in the northern climes of the country...until it became evident that I would be moving away from Oklahoma, at which point they crossed the state line and bought a house there faster than the original Boomer Sooners.


No, I don't take it personally at all.



Much.



But it does make holidays a bit more convenient. We drive a few miles up the freeway and throw another Christmas with my side of the family. I have two brothers who had the wisdom to marry awesome women and then had the wisdom to give me a plethora of nieces and nephews. When we're all together, it's a loud, laughter-filled hoopla.



Meet the Matriarch, my precious grandmother. That's 2 of 8 giving her some love...











Here's the Octamom Pater Familias, also known as the Rocket Scientist. He may be reading over my Lego Shim Splint dossier...







And here he is with 6 of 8, unaware that she is totally manipulating his heart strings...







And here is the Octamom Maternal Personage. I'm actually amazed I caught this elusive creature in something other than a total blur--she generally spends our Christmas running in frenetic circles, serving ham and pie. It was fascinating to catch her in a moment of stillness...







Actually, to be most journalistically accurate, the next photo would be a better representation of how my mother appears most of the holiday...a blurry dazzle of activity...







This distinguished fellow would be one of my younger brothers. I'm 21 months older than he is...but here's your chance to earn major bonus points when you play Octamom Trivial Pursuit. Whenever you run in to him, be sure and ask him if he's the oldest...I love it when that happens....if he gets asked just a few more times, I suspect he'll start snorting Grecian Formula...







Behold the grand LEGO-build session of 2008. This motley construction crew would be comprised of 5 of 8 and Oldest Nephew and Youngest Nephew...





Let's face it, if they're going to grow up to have amazing medical device LEGO design abilities, you've got to start them early...



Pictured next is one of my brilliant sister-in-laws talking with 1 of 8. This particular sis-in-law has her PhD in bio-molecular chemistry, thereby raising the comprehensive family IQ by a factor of 3 when she married in. But that's really not the most impressive thing about her. I actually get phone calls from her asking me if we are missing any Barbie shoes as she has found one that doesn't belong to their Barbie population and may have been packed in their belongings by mistake in the big post-present-opening clean-up. For real? Like any Barbie in my house has matching shoes? And like I would even know if one was missing? My kids rarely wear matching shoes, much less our naked Barbie population...







These two cuties are Second Niece and 4 of 8--they're thick as thieves, with deep devotion to each other and all thing American Girl paraphernalia...







And here would be Second Niece and her squirrelly brothers, Second Nephew and Third Nephew. Second Niece holds a special place in my heart as she is the oldest and only sister to two younger brothers, just like me. It's a tough calling, but somebody's got to do it...







Second Nephew, there on the left? He just loves it when I ask to take his picture...not.

Now Third Nephew, he's all up for it.







You met these folks last week, my youngest brother and his wife and brood...







If you want Super Bonus Points when you play Octamom Trivial Pursuit, ask this brother if he's older than I am. It makes me soooooo happy.....



After the big Oklahoma festivities, we straggled back to the new home front and somehow miraculously pulled off the Big Day on the 25th with our little band of merry people.



It sort of went like this...







And this...







The twins were just blurry on Christmas Day...I'm sure it had nothing to do with the photographer trying to focus after a restful night's sleep of 92 minutes...



Then there was more present opening and then there was napping and then we had fajitas for Christmas Dinner because we had eaten more Christmas ham in Oklahoma than is probably allowed by law...certainly way more than Levitic law...



Thanks for joining me on the Three Christmases Tour. This concludes our tour. Please be careful as you exit the Octamom Tram. Be sure and visit the gift shop and join us again for future festivals.

Jamming up the Internet, one photo-crammed post at a time...