This was the first time we'd been able to get together as a complete family for a long time. We brought other people too, like Collin, Julie, Allison, and Zipper, but Rob had just come back from California and Andrew had just come up from Tennessee so we all made a point of getting together for a family dinner.

Still experimenting with the new camera: mom has set out a mess of chicken for dinner for us!	Mom poses with Allison before her own culinary prowess.	Rob and Julie, freshly returned from California. Yes, they're here for good now.
Amanda and Collin. Just grinning and stuff, and it's not even Christmas.	Collin, Andrew, Amanda, and Zipper settle down for a pre-dinner smarm.	Mom has one of those voice-recognition cameras, where you yell instructions at it, like "work, dammit" and "what's wrong with you".
Andrew wants to show everyone how his cell phone takes pictures backwards and forwards!	Mmm, delicious chicken! Turning out great!	Rob, Julie, Collin, and Amanda form an impenetrable wall of defense for my car. I appreciate it.
Amanda, Zipper, Andrew, and me. What the hell are we doing with our lives?	I supervise with a Coke as Amanda slowly bastes the chicken. Slowly and carefully, on the conservative side.	Mom's asking Andrew a very important question, but I swear upon my soul I can't recall what it was.
Mmm! Check out the chick with the chicken! Carefully using her plasticware - how dainty.	Mom asks for the seventh or eighth time whether everyone's had enough to eat, or if they'd like more.	There are little yellow streaks on the cans of Coke, but that doesn't mean they taste any different.
Rob explains it all while Julie just kinda... watches. You know, takes it all in.	Mom gives Amanda and Collin the greatest testament to modern technology: a toaster oven that automatically converts to a microwave!	Q: Is that enough watermelon for you, Allison? A: No. Not nearly.
Get to it! Watermelons don't eat themselves! ...Well, this one did, but I don't like to recall it.	Nothing says "home" like a nice moist neighborhood. Home! Moist!	And what goes better with a dampening neighborhood than a nice fistful of watermelon?
Collin and Amanda banter in preparation for their wedding while Zipper continues to nurse his headache.	Oh no! Amanda's neuroses have manifested as a large butterfly emerging forcibly from her forehead!	Another wedding gift: something nice, domestic, and feminine. Maybe she'll stop acting out now.
Allison's got to see what's in the next present! What is it? Meow?	Allison and mom zone out to the TV. This happens all the time, it's terrible. Someone get the drool-rags, Oprah's on...	MPG of Amanda and Collin opening a card from a relative Right-click here and download it for yourself, then view it.
Aww, it's Sugar! The cutest cat in the household!	Aww, it's Trouble! The cutest cat in the household!