At long last, here are some of the photos I took when we were in Mississippi in December. I didn't take as many as I should have, due to my general inability to muster the motivation to get off the couch, but there are a few good ones.

I don't know why so many of our good photos come from the Semi-Annual Rice Family Poker Showdown. Gambling just seems to bring out the best in us. Maybe it's the money. Speaking of the money, we got up to $50 this year:

If you look closely at this photo, you'll see Ryan putting a chokehold on Audrey. As the game progressed and she started wiping the floor with him, I'm sure he wished he'd kept it going until she lost consciousness.

But before that happened, Ryan was having a pretty good run. He started referring to his stack of chips worth 500 as "The Green Tsunami." This is him demonstrating how the wave works.

The problem with the tournament is that we always seem to start it late, and when there are about 10 people playing, this tends to make the game wear on until the wee hours of the morning. Thus, Audrey is wearing her bathrobe in this shot, because she really just wanted to go to bed. But instead, she was taking Ryan's chips. Clearly, he was feeling less cocky by this time.

But later in the night, the dealer, Dan, got a little sleepy, and the final hand that would have settled the match between Ryan and Audrey may or may not have been misread. Since Dan had already picked up the cards, we really didn't know who had won. So Ryan and Audrey split the pot and share the title for now. Next time, we will bring in a professional dealer.

Another highlight of the evening was that Mom decided to join us, learning to play poker pretty much as the game went along. This resulted in some great poker lingo usage from Mom, such as "I'm going to stay out," instead of "I fold." She was really doing well by the time she was eliminated, and she spent the rest of the night studying the list of pokre hands that Dan made up for her. Next time, I'm sure she'll beat us all.

Other highlights included Aaron buying me a cigar that I tried to enjoy outside on the deck for about 30 seconds before I remembered what a wuss I am, Dan getting beaten out when high school girls were still very much in the game, and Hannah's boyfriend Daniel and Audrey's boyfriend Cade joining in the fun. And, even though Dad says it wouldn't be fair to us for him to play, since the game would be over so fast, he did grill us some great steaks before we got started.

If you're in the neighborhood this summer, feel free to reserve your seat in the best poker game ever. We only charge a $50 fee for non blood relatives.