After visiting Kerrie's grand parents we headed back to the M. family for dinner and gift exchange. Kerrie was very close friends with the kids of the family back in high school. When we got there, there were many more people than in the morning. I proceeded to hook up my laptop to their fancy flat-panel TV for karaoke. Allthough in the beginning, everyone was not that enthusiastic about karaoke, later it turned out that all of the members of the family were pretty good singers and were very creative in their performances. Here is the video: After karaoke we proceeded to have Christmas Dinner. Before we started dinner Chuck, the father, gave as a brief sermon and then we proceeded to the turkey.

Following dinner we proceeded to the present opening ceremony. Prior to opening the presents, one of the kids of the family Nathan read a poem that he wrote about the family. He got so emotional reading it that he burst into tears and could not finish reading it and had to have his father, Chuck, finish reading it.

It was a "Secret Santa" gift exchange, where several weeks before Christmas certain people were randomly selected to get the gifts for certain people. Everyone was supposed to describe what kind of gifts they wanted, but they did not know who will end up getting them. Since I had the most appropriate attire, I volunteered to be the Santa Claus for the evening handing out the gifts. As usual everyone was making witty comments about every gift that was open. The theme of the gifts that I got was music. I got Piano suspenders, Piano cufflinks, socks with a treble clef, and a Christmas bell that looked like a sixteenth note. Very appropriate gifts! I love them! Thanks Chuck! I also got a touch of Florida with a Manatee Cookies mix.

I am greatful for M's hostpitality and a chance to whitness a very strong and happy family during the Christmas time.

Here are all of the photos taken there.