merry christmas

Ah, yes. The year Santa had to eat some dirty ass cookies off the floor.

 Poor Piper! I was too focused on them smiling for the pictures that I had no idea those cookies were so close to the edge of the plate. She was absolutely heartbroken but here I am looking at the photo series for the hundredth time with tears in my eyes from laughter. And seriously, Kennedy trying to contain her laughter is so hilarious to me.

10 second rule.

Leia

merry christmas ya filthy animal: a photo series

Christmas was wonderful. We hosted my mom and sisters for breakfast and stayed home in our jammies for the rest of the day. Let me say it has been such a huge stress relief not traveling for the holidays. SORRY EXTENDED FAM.

^^ the girls got into their Santa stuff before I woke up since me and the jolly guy in red were up WAY too 'early' setting up. They didn't take off their shoes all morning - sleeping bags will be shared in a different post.

^^ such a grateful mess.

^^ the recipe from this mid-week meal share; substitute blueberries with strawberries and chocolate chips 😋

^^ we tend to be more photogenic than this (haha, who am I kidding) and I swear we do actually enjoy hanging out with each other aside from all the attitude captured in that snap.

We said goodbye to our tree already.

Leia

9th annual christmas brunch

Ah, yes. Brunch at The Gandy Dancer is something I look forward to each year. Since most of us have more than one designated stop on Christmas, my dad; now 9 years ago, planned that we would celebrate Christmas early with a special brunch with presents and refreshments afterwards at his house. Overall, it's a really special day but of course, pictures documenting everything are sparce.

 ^^ hey, we tried. At least their dresses look decent! Pretty proud of myself.

And now time for some presents!

 Little story about this coat. She saw it after we had finished Christmas shopping for her but later that day my dad and stepmom asked her what she would like from them. She promptly told them this coat. I got confirmation that they were able to find one in her size. On our next trip to Target she ran over the coats and was very annoyingly/longingly asking if Medium or Large was an Extra Small even though she already knew the answer and very loudly huffed, "DARNIT, THEY DON'T HAVE MY SIZE." Muhhahahahahaa. Well, really, if you don't change that attitude you won't ever get one in your size either, kid!

 And do any of you recall the little umbrella stroller Piper got for her birthday? Well approximately two days later the cloth seat was ripped after Kennedy was pushing Piper around in it, haha. So naturally she got an upgrade (hopefully more heavy duty version) for Christmas with the same not-letting-it-out-of-my-hand love.

SOMEHOW the front wheel on her new one is already bent. And it's pretty heavy duty so I'm not even sure how she managed to do it.

Eggs benedict fills my soul with cheer.

Leia

24 hour christmas preparation

Yesterday, December 23rd, will forever be known as the day that I was up for 25 hours preparing for Christmas. No, I wasn't wrapping, buying, decorating for this entire time as I spent 12 of the hours at work but I worked my tail off until the wee hours of Christmas Eve when I finally called it quits.

I was entirely too enthusiastic with the amount of handmade projects I took on. The sleeping bags from Santa (with last minute help from my mom), gifts for my sisters and before that, the girls holiday dresses (all of which I hope to give a run down on).

Now for sleep.

Leia

christmas cookies with the fam

We all gathered round for a sugar cookie explosion. And when I say explosion I mean there must've been 200 cookies along with all the frosting and sprinkles to make them beauteous.

 ^^ A1 outfit choice by my best girl.

While I was feeling a bit uppity with my decorating skills, Kennedy was solely interested in frosting and sprinkling them just so she could eat something other than a plain cookie. I think her sugar levels and contentment collided at their highest levels possible.

This is what I imagine is going through her head. Gotta love Marshall:

Piper on the other hand didn't want anything to do with the cookie and was basing her selection on frosting content alone. The more, the better. It made my stomach hurt and I finally had to cut them both off when I saw the amount of frosting she gobbled up with one lick.

And behold my bikini clad gingerbread gal in the background. Totally my best cookie creation to date.

We'll try to save some for Santa. Haha.

Leia

bronner's christmas wonderland: a tiny photo series

Checked one thing off my holiday to-do list! Last Friday afternoon we headed to Frankenmuth to spend the afternoon at Bronner's.

^^ I have obviously made them miserable.

^^ Clearly posing for pictures runs in the family.

Ornaments, glitter, and uncooperative photo ops galore!


And as tradition would follow, we stopped off at Tony's for a one pound of bacon BLT. Yummo.

The day was successful as usual and we came home with new ornaments for next year and bellies that were probably a little too full.



Open 361 days a year.
Leia