My sister Patricia came to visit on December 31, 2011 with her husband Yusuke! We were able to spend the first week of January together, and have some great family time!

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kitchendorks.jpg

saladfixins.jpg: My mom brought some fantastic salad toppings so we could each make our own however we wanted.

yface.jpg: Here's Patricia's husband Yusuke, with his smiling face.

pandysaucy.jpg: Yusuke helps Patricia in the kitchen.

lindsaypillow.jpg: My youngest sister Lindsay was there for the festivities. She is hugging my Cthulhu pillow here.

blurryfamily.jpg: My mom tried to take a shot of us with her camera, but it came out blurry. I still like the motion suggested.

blurryfamily2.jpg: Still blurry, kids. ;)

lessblurryfamily.jpg: We're not quite as blurry here.

nyemunchers.jpg: There's Mommy, and she brought her roommate Bernard. My sisters and Yusuke are eating in the back. :)

nyegroup.jpg: Here's the whole New Year's Eve crew, including my mom's roomie.

nyesisters.jpg: Now just the sisters.

picnicdresses.jpg: On New Year's Day we had a picnic. Patricia and Lindsay wore dresses.

parkdoggies.jpg: Linds brought her doggies, Chewy and Pork Chop.

ypicnicpork.jpg: Yusuke enjoys a Coke while petting tiny Pork Chop.

parkgirlies.jpg: There are my park girlies. Sisters!

momcamera.jpg: Yusuke's watching Mom try to use her camera.

instruction.jpg: Maybe Patricia has good camera advice?

curiousaboutpork.jpg: A passing family seemed curious about Pork Chop.

porkexploreswithmom.jpg: That doggie is so good. You don't even have to put her on a leash.

lakelookin.jpg: Mom's wanderin'.

chewypoop.jpg: She's carrying a poop bag in case the doggie goes.

notfresh.jpg: Yusuke and I were trying to get our picture, but we kinda looked sleepy.

fresh.jpg: And now Yusuke looks like he had like a whole pot of coffee between this one and the previous one.

lindsaydogs.jpg: There's my baby sister and her doggies!

prissydog.jpg: Isn't Pork Chop such a princess?

albumjacket.jpg: Yusuke said this looked like an album cover. It totally does.

And then: We did some "levitation" attempts, which is something funny I've been doing where I try to jump just when the camera is taking the picture. Here are our successful ones.

       

         

         

contemplatinglake.jpg: There's P observing the lake.

familylake1.jpg: Here we are posed near the lake! Automated shot!

familylake2.jpg: Slightly different shot.

momldogs.jpg: And here's Linds with her doggies, next to her mommy.

flourlesscookies.jpg: The next day, we made these cookies: a fudgy sort and a peanut butter/oatmeal sort. They were flourless cookies, a gift for my grandmother's birthday. Grandma prefers to avoid wheat.

pknits.jpg: P's present for Grandma was this purple knitted shawl. She was working on knitting it here.

knitclose.jpg: After she blocked it you could really see the lace pattern.

buttfaceknit.jpg: More distant view of the shawl, ever so tastefully laid out on my Butt/Face towel.

sarasotadin1.jpg: Here's our family visiting the grandparents, with our dad and Connie, at a fish restaurant.

makespringrolls.jpg: My mom had this bright idea to make spring rolls. Here are Mom and Yusuke rolling them. (I didn't help; I made banana bread, though.)

phelping.jpg: We joked that this was how Patricia helped. (She was busy with work on her computer.)

tiredyusuke.jpg: After a movie, Yusuke was pooped. Patricia wouldn't let him stay there for the night, but it was cute while it lasted.

telescope.jpg: Mom brought her telescope over and we attempted to look at the moon and Jupiter.

momremembers.jpg: Patricia wanted to re-teach our mom how to knit, but it turned out she remembered it without a hitch and just started knitting away.