Christmas

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My church had a live nativity during their Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It was supposed to be held outside, but was moved inside at the last minute due to rain. (Nope, no snow in Atlanta, just rain.) Well, I was one of the three kings. You really can only see half of the scene in these pictures. Mary, Joseph, a couple of shepherds and half of the manger got cut off in the pictures. Oh well. I'm the one wearing the turban. Okay, so I look like Carnak from The Johnny Carson Show:

After the ceremony, several of us were just hanging out and talking. I just happened to snap a picture of my friend Jennifer at the time. I'm sticking it on this web page because I thought it was a pretty picture of her.


 


Near the end of the year, my previous Sunday School class (one of several singles' classes) dissolved. People had moved on to other classes due to marriage and other life changes. Still, the people in that class were great. When I first moved here to Atlanta, they made me feel more welcome and at home than anyone else. A lot of nice friends came from that class. Well, a couple of the members who had since gotten married threw a Christmas / Reunion party:

This is Carlton (okay, 1/2 of Carlton), Leslie, Debbie, and Gwin.


 

Most of the guys were downstairs playing pool before we opened presents.


 

Okay, it's about time to start opening presents...Presents were done grab-bag style. Some were gag-like gifts, others more serious. We also mad a game out of it -- a tradition -- in which you could either "steal" someone else's present or take your chances on a wrapped one from under the tree. If you stole, the person you stole from could then steal, etc., but no more than 3 steals in a row.


 

Let's see what we got...Wade got a Nerf gun (or more accurately, he had it for a while before someone stole it).


 

Kimberly got a mouse pad / lamp...until Gwin later stole it.


 

Poor Steve got a picture of WWF's Mankind...He lucked out by it later getting stolen by Blake for his brother!


 

Carlton got (and ended up with) a tic-tac-toe set.


 

What would Christmas be without a Chia-Pet? Now Stuart will never have to know.


 

Debbie got a juggling Hershey's Kiss. (Yes, it really did juggle.)


 

Okay, enough with the presents.
Here's Melanie...Remember her? I dated her a couple of years ago...and Blake, who since got engaged on New Year's Eve! (Popping the question was the last thing he did in the 20th century...or was it? Technically, there's still another year left!)


 


Just before christmas several people from church went ice skating.  I didn't go, but here are friends of mine that did go:


For Christmas, I went back home to Chicago, of course, and as usual, Christmas dinner was at my sister Gwen's home:

Gwen, my sister-in-law Meryl, my mom, my niece Beth, my niece Natasha's boyfriend Randy, Natasha, and the legs of Beth's boyfriend Todd.


 

Ahhhhh...Okay, here's the rest of Todd. He does have a torso and a head.


 

I had the camera sitting on the table while we were playing a game. I snapped this, just to be silly. I find it rather funny -- how it ended up with my niece Beth's head in the coffee cup.


 

OH NO! Who killed the wicked witch of the west? My sister Adrienne (in Hawaii) sent my sister Gwen a "draft stopper" that looks like her house landed on the witch from The Wizard Of Oz.


 

Well, That's all for Christmas this year. Yep, rather boring pictures...and NONE from the millennium's New Years parties (2) that I went to. I'll try to do better next year.


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