Christmas 2008...cancelled, sort of.

Having three sisters who are all married sometimes poses some logistical challenges, especially aroung the holidays. As much as the entire family tries to get together for Christmas, it generally only happens every other year. That is, we will have a Sturgis Christmas one year and then the year after, my sisters have Christmas with their husbands' families. And the pattern sort of repeats like that. This year was one of the "off" years, in which my sisters would be spending the holidays with their husbands families. So...Emily and Jared stayed in SLC and had Jared's family out to visit, Annie and Brandon went to Buffalo, NY to spend Christmas with the Dayton's and Elaine and Mike made the usual trek back to the Boston area. I, being the eternally single guy, stuck around these (Methuen, MA) parts as well.

Since this was an "off" year (sorry, I don't know what else to call it), and having my parents recently retire/move to Japan, the Sturgis clan decided not to do presents, which was fine by me. It's not too often then you don't need to go Christmas shopping. Although I scored a little package of goodies from Japan and a handmade Alpaca wool scarf that Elaine made me, Christmas was rather uneventful in terms of gift giving, but being with the family that was around more than made up for it.

Some random pics:


Maya on my tummy. I've seen quite a bit of Maya recently as she was up here in November for a funeral, I was down in DC for Thanksgiving, and now she was back up for a week for Christmas.


Maya at the Qualter's house on the massage chair. I wasn't there when this picture was taken, but I'm sure it kept Maya thoroughly entertained for a good 20-30 seconds.


Maya and Grampa Mark (Sturgis) playing some tunes on my guitars. Maya's been getting more use out of them than me lately.


Grampa Mark...professional baby book reader.