insta friday - the 'so long, 2011' edition.

Wow.

The last Friday of 2011.

Can you believe it?

Here's the last week of 2011,

via Instagram.

Last Friday, the ever-awesome Kim gifted me with this:

LOVE. THIS. SONG.
Love it.
Download it.
You'll love it.

And just go ahead and read The Hunger Games trilogy while you're at it.
Good stuff.

And, speaking of awesome friends,
my friend Liz dropped a box of Christmas goodies off last Friday night.
I didn't want to share any of it.



Christmas Eve morning I did a little more baking.
Because we clearly didn't have enough sweets in the house.



And my mom served these diet mashed potatoes that night at her house.



{uh, yeah.  that's butter you see pooling on top.  blame the pioneer woman for that recipe.}

Christmas morning tree lights.
Is there anything more peaceful?



Santa brought brown paper packages, tied up with string.
{inspired by The Sound of Music, of course.}

Christmas morning: more food.


{the reduced fat jimmy dean sausage is kind of comical, i know.}

And bowling down the longest dang entryway known to man.
At least we finally found a good use for it.



Immediately following Christmas?
Of course four out of five of us got sick.
I was one of them.
But it was an awesome excuse to lay on the couch
and finish Mockingjay.
{and update my planner and read a little beth moore.}



And good thing I spent some time in my in-laws' mandarin orchard
on Christmas,
because on the 26th I had a full-on Vitamin C gorge session.





I can eat 20 of these a day.
No lie.
But...my cold is gone.
Coincidence?

Yesterday I convinced the crew we needed to go to Ikea.
Gary drove because I hate the tunnel.



Someday, this girl will be mine.
I admire her every time I'm at Ikea.



Enjoy your last day of 2011 tomorrow.

See you in twenty twelve.

 

christmas break: a staycation.

We're having what they call a "staycation"
for our Christmas break.

This week we're all home:
doing house projects,
taking down the Christmas stuff,
eating leftovers, playing with presents,
having playdates and going to Ikea and maybe heading into SF one of the days.

I really like that above sentence.

Today Gary is mountain biking with some friends,
{they went here, i think?}
and I currently have a house full of eight kids
in the throes of a playdate.
They haven't seen each other since last Friday and you would think
it had been a year and a half since they'd last played.
So! Happy! To! See! Each! Other!


My kitchen is getting a glimpse of what it's like
to have a big group of constantly hungry guys take over.
A teenage preview?
We may need to take out a loan to afford groceries.

{i spy princess shoes, uneaten corn dogs, ketchup, capri suns, and mess.}

I'm busy wrapping ornaments back up in bubble wrap
and getting the house back to normal.

And since the last of the leftovers are now gone
{'bye mashed potatoes...sniff}

it's back to eating some healthier stuff.
On the menu tonight:

spaghetti squash.
I'm already gearing up for my kids' complaints.

And the kids aren't the only ones playing with Christmas presents.
I'm pretty excited about this one. :)

And you know the saying that you learn something new every day?

Today I'm learning that eight kids

can eat a lot of popcorn.

scenes from a christmas.

Well, it's over.
It was a whirlwind,
but a nice, family-filled, mess-creating whirlwind.

Christmas Eve:
cookie baking.

Coffee drinking.
Lots.

Dishwasher unloading.
And immediately reloading.

There are always - always - shoes by the stairs to be put away.

Christmas Eve at my parents' = eating, Elf, and playing with presents.
I have the best memories of Christmas Eve growing up.
My kids will, too.

On Christmas morning,
after the coffee has been made
and the tree has been lit
and the fire is going
and the camera is ready to go,

we finally let them come into the room to open presents.

{a set of homemade notecards for me.}

Her favorite gift:

the Hello Kitty sewing machine.

I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

:)

I love the energy of Christmas morning.

And the food. 

:)
I always make this casserole.

It's...not diet food.

Later in the afternoon we pack up and head to Gary's parents'
for another round.

I just had to share this photo that Gary took.
It's so unflattering, 

but it's a very accurate depiction of *the look*, as given to
one of my kids who was about to 

open a present before the ok had been given.

Tell me you have one of those looks, too?

And then, on our way home,

my last bit of Christmas music for the year.

This year my Pandora staples were

the Vince Guaraldi trio station,

Michael Buble/Third Day holiday mix,

and the Barenaked Ladies holiday.

{if you don't know the Barenaked Ladies, don't let the name scare you.  LOVE that station.}

And today...

it's operation find a place for everything

and try to reorganize the house.

We're all still a little sick,

so we're also in chill mode.

I love chill mode.

And I'm so thankful today is garbage day.

Bye bye, cardboard boxes,  millions of twist ties, and wrapping paper.

It's the little things.

:)

all is calm. finally.

As of yesterday,
Christmas break is on.

School is out until next year,
and Gary has some time off of work.
Happy dance!!

The kids are spending the night at my parents'
so Gary and I had a last minute Christmas gift
shopping date today.
That seems to be one of our traditions:
shopping and dinner.
I kinda like it.
I kinda like him.

Tonight we're wrapping
and watching Christmas Vacation.
Raise your hand if you can pretty much quote the entire movie?
Me.
Love it.
{favorite line: "you serious, clark?"}

Here are a few instashots of our week.

The fort that took over the living room for 10 or so  hours.

Coffee:
drink and repeat.
More cream, please.

You may not be able to tell from this picture,

but she's losing weight.

Quickly.

Poor fat girl had a thyroid problem.

Sooooo tempted to steal one of her canine magic pills. 

:)

{kidding}

The crew t-shirt for the as-yet-unnamed
movie that Gary's working on.
I know nothing about it.
Mysterious....

The night-before-the-class-parties 10 pm tradition.
Also tradition: wondering why I always wait until the night before.

The cutest Christmas fabric ever
became the cutest Christmas skirt and shirt.
Jesus, Mary, Joseph matryoshka dolls?
Yes, please!

If we don't chat before,

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

Hug your family,

eat lots of cookies,

and thank Santa for whatever he brings you.

And, most importantly, remember

the Gift we were all given.

Linus really said it best.

new and IMPROVED gingerbread.

We make a gingerbread house every year.
And, of course, by "make" I mean we buy a kit and put it together.

{i am nowhere near crazy or brave enough to make my own
gingerbread house from scratch.}

This year the kit we bought from Costco was pre-built.
Genius!
Trying to get the walls and roof to stay together
is always my least favorite part of the gingerbread building.

As soon as that bad boy was out of the box
the kids started decorating.
That's the fun part.

Candy taste-testing is a must.

Can we please all agree that gumdrops are disgusting?
Yuck.

This is my favorite house we've made yet.
My only contribution was the icicles.

They did everything else.

It looks so cute on my Ikea tray!

Saturday night a friend threw a "cookies with Santa" party.

I brought some snickerdoodles.

Oh I love those things.

Before Christmas I want to also make gingerbread men,

peanut butter blossoms,

and cookie dough truffles.  

And maybe Mexican wedding cookies.

But I'll give them all away!

I promise.

Sunday I wasn't feeling well so we played hooky from church.

The couch cushion architects in the family built a very elaborate

fort in the living room.

They had confiscated every chair and cushion in the living room
and were baffled as to why I wouldn't let them leave that structure up for days.

I can be very unreasonable like that.