We managed to pull off our traditional Christmas dinner, after all the quarantining and testing and what not. Did I mention that I drove my mother-in-law’s RV to the Bay Area in a convoy with my wife, younger daughter and her boyfriend, just so we didn’t have to use pubic restrooms?

All just to keep my 97-year-old mother safe. There she is waiting for us to get the dinner served.

My brother Sid, carving the roast beef.

Yorkshire pudding… did I mention that we have a traditional English Christmas dinner every year?

We even have the English Christmas poppers… Google them.

And we did the Christmas Eve matching jammies thing. Mollie and Ben looked adorable as usual.

And so did Jessica and her husband, Jason.

I was going for moving family photos, to save on the cloud for posterity.

Then it got goofy.

There was photo bombing…

But it was fun, even without the other brothers and their families. Sometimes we have around 15 people in the house for almost a week, not to mention guests for fancy dinners and people who stop by to see us. Covid toned that down.

Mom is still waiting for that dinner.

Jason got a little tippsy.

I tried to look nice for late-Christmas dinner, but I do not shave on my vacations!

My mom loves having family around, and that happens less often now.

She finally gave up and began toasting herself.

At the end of the meal comes the Plum Pudding, doused in liquor, and set ablaze. You can’t take a good photo because it is dark, and the shutter wants to stay open and the flash ruins everything anyway.

Jason, wearing the crown from his popper… seriously, Google them.

And Mollie’s boyfriend Ben, the new kid on the block, was fitting in well as always.