Oh, yeah, also Annandag.

The day after Christmas we went to the Johnsons' annual celebration of Annandag Jul. There were most of the usual foods and Reed gave the same speech explaining all the foods and making sure people knew that the proper way to slice cheese is to use a cheese plane (not whack it!). They always make a big fish. Usually it is a Spanish trout, but this year they had a flounder. I don't like most sea food, but I always look forward to the big fish for Annandag. I brought Lion House Rolls and got a lot of compliments. It's a great recipe.

One thing that was different this year was that we didn't have to spend the entire night chasing Kevin down. He mostly played in the living room with his friend Joseph and sometimes he asked to go outside and play with the dog. He was delighted to get to throw a ball for the dog to chase. It was so odd because normally he is running around and getting into all sorts of mischief, but apparently he's starting to figure out how to just go play with toys. Heidi just wanted to sit on the steps right next to the candles. She didn't want to play with the candles or climb up and down or jump or anything--she just liked to sit there. I think Ryan ended up blowing some of the candles out to prevent a fire. So it was nice to get to actually talk to people and enjoy our dinner instead of chasing the entire time.

After dinner we did ring dances and danced Christmas into the house by walking around the house holding hands in a long chain and singing a song. This is done every year. Kevin liked it. He wanted to do the ring dances too, but he was too shy, so he mainly just watched.