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Last Friday, Brian and I received news that Brian's sister-in-law, Shawnna, had gone into labor. We headed off to the hospital to greet the new baby. After a long labor, the doctors finally pronounced that Shawnna needed a Caesarian section, so they whisked her off into surgery.
She and Brian's brother, Tim, now have a fine, bouncing baby boy, who they named Andrew Donovan. They will be calling him Andy for short. Both baby and mom are doing well!
Derek will now have a cousin to play with in the coming years!

The next night was my brother's annual company Christmas Party. Well, he actually invites whoever he wants to to the party, which is why I still get an invitation! We went to a nifty Japanese steakhouse, and the chef grilled everything up at the grill right in front of our table-he even made a volcano out of a stack of onions!
The steak was delicious, but Derek didn't seem to like either it or the fried rice. He preferred the raisins provided by our friends, Johnny and Mary-Ann!
After dinner, we returned to Don and Amy's for the famous "white elephant" gift exchange. After much hilarity, I ended up with a Darth Vader helmet, and my brother's friend Greg went home with a King Kong toy. The rest of the gifts were very popular, and several really nifty ones (involving gourmet foods, chocolate, or wine)were "stolen" several times from their original recipients.
The rules for the "white Elephant" exchange are thus: Numbers are drawn for the amount of gifts brought (should equal those who are playing the game.) Number One picks a charmingly-wrapped gift to open. Number Two can either "steal" that gift, or choose a new one from the pile. There can only be two "steals" in a row, and you can't "steal" the thing that was just taken from you (at least, not in that turn.) If someone "steals" from you, you get to go up and choose another gift until they are all gone!

A few days ago, Brian and I were struck by a nasty bug-whether flu (there wasn't a fever, but we sure felt bad) or food poisoning, we aren't sure. But we are back to normal now, and went out for pizza tonight. Yum!