A Belated Bday/Xmas

Due to Laura and I's trip to Belize we delayed the usual family get together to celebrate the normal grouping of family birthdays and Christmas. We had lunch at a local restaurant and then headed back to our house for gifts and homemade carrot cake. Yum.

As a collective whole we've trimmed back the volume of gifts given, but the quality is still quite tremendous. I made out exceptionally well this year.

My mom & dad gifted me a set of Record Breaking Baseball pint glasses.

Each glasses holds single season or career records for all the major hitting or pitching categories. Also, the base of each glass holds an imprint of a baseball. Very cool!

 My sister scored me a couple of pieces of art from a local artist. Willson Contreras, because of his enthusiasm, is my second favorite baseball player right behind Ben Zobrist. Zorilla gets the nod because of his local ties.

 This is the piece that I'm the most excited about. I'm wondering if I get it framed if my wife will give me some wall space on the main floor? Time will tell!

 I also received some gift cards, baseball cards and some cash . . . but the gift I'm most excited about belonged to my grandparents.

At my grandparents' cottage, at Bass Lake, they had a hallway littered with family pictures. I can picture many things about their past residence, but I have trouble placing where this particular item was hanging.

It's a picture of my dad, at about 8 years old, playing catch in the front of their house in Hazel Crest, while wearing his little league uniform. My dad was a pretty good athlete back in the day and is largely responsible for me falling in love with baseball. The sentimental value of this picture is off the charts!

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!