Christmas was at our house this year. A mass of 12 bodies crammed into our house for a week. It was fun (despite everyone being a little blurry).

We started with Maddox’s birthday party (no.3)

Because Kate had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we celebrated Christmas a couple days early…

Having Christmas early is good for when you have to run to Walmart to buy some cheap paintball guns. You should come over an play, we’ve got a great old quarry across the road.

Ava on Christmas Eve… dressed up and ready for Church.

We went to Chucky Cheese’s one night, and as you can see I schooled Maddox in air hocky.

The family photo. To understand the whole ordeal of getting things ready for a photo like this, you have to see the setup dance.

The last couple of days in California I had to ditch the contacts and rest my eyes in preperation for my Lasik surgery. I’ve waited a long time to get rid of those contacts, and finally the day came when both the technology had developed to correct my vision AND I could almost afford it.

The whole surgery lasted less than 10 minutes, but it’s taken several weeks to regain full vision (and still slowly getting better). Because of my astigmatism, it was necessary that I undergo a procedure known as PRK. They tell me most LASIK surgeries are a two step process. Step 1 involves peeling back the top layer of your eye, much like you would slice into a block of cheese. Step 2 is where they shoot the lasers into your eye and miraculously fix everything. Typically the patients experience 20/20 vision in just 24 hours (Greg, my father-in-law, had this done just a few weeks after mine and he was seeing like an eagle the next day). PRK is a little different. Instead of peeling back a flap of skin, they use a chemical and basically disolve away the skin on my eye, so the fact that it has to grow back is the reason for the long recovery. The doc tells me the advantage is that PRK allows for more options in the future if need be.

So far all is well. I’m digging my contact-free vision, and hope it’ll stay that way from here on out.

Having to go to California for work, I brought Kate along and we spent the weekend with the Pearcy’s, meeting little Drew for the first time.

Kate and I walking the beaches of Coronado on the last day I ever wore contacts. (I’ll get into my Lasik later)

Saturday afternoon was spent watching the Pearcy/Purkiss photo shoot in La Jolla.

Later that night we went to the Delmar Festival of Lights.

There was odd displays… take this peeing bear for instance.

We went, with Kate’s cousins, to a small family-owned tree farm to find our first Christmas Tree. I’m certain we created a new tradition with this adventure.

Have you ever shed a tear for the innocent asteroids that contantly get obliterated by holier-than-thou spaceships? Play Asteroid Revenge and see the tables finally turned on those pretentious triangles.