joy with a little "j"

I realize this isn't a monumental thing, but nothing is better then getting organized after Christmas.  And so it begins . . .

Oh yeah, bring on wrapping fest 2014 next year.  Feels good!  Of course I have about a billion other things to organize too . . .

Family Fun Night

Fergs.  Daukas'.  Despicable Me 2.

Holiday Recap

Christmas Eve festivities were a blast.  We had rachlette and then the Elves paid us a visit and stocking were left for us.  We loaded the stockings and the gifts from the AZ family on the table.  I love this shot as Charlotte gets a look at the table and rushes over to try to climb up to see better all the "presintz" that are there.

 

 Charlotte took a few minutes to figure out the stocking . . . at first she ignored it and then she tried to put it on!

 But soon she figured it all out and happy chaos erupted as we all got our Christmas Eve spirit on!

 I love this girl's expressions.  Every gift she always seems so genuinely excited.  I didn't capture it all, but you get the idea.

Charlotte was pretty intense the entire time and got right down to business.

 She really was taken with the whipped cream and strawberry sauce on the dessert.

This got her attention for an entire 10-15 minutes - that is unheard of with this girl.

At the end of the night we got to toast another wonderful year, the love of family and great friends and count our blessings in every way.  It was off to put out the treats for Santa and get ready bed.

Christmas dawned and we headed to Grandma and Grandpas to celebrate and spend the day.

 Addy got a new camera and made fast work of getting pics for the day, so these are a mix of pictures from both our cameras.




Addy got this picture of the ticket tree - this was her first year getting to enjoy the fun with all of us.  She was really into it!

We had a great time laughing, sharing stories and gifts, eating and being merry!

 Surely this captures a bit of the fun for memories, it was a lovely holiday with loved ones near and far!

Christmas Past

Found these pics tonight from 2011 and 2012 with our little girlies!

2011:

Wow, so young!

Its the santa stink eye:

Poor Charlotte - she looks so shocked here??

And 2012:

We spent the first two weeks of December celebrating the season at Disneyworld:

Do you see a theme of Charlotte not paying attention to the camera?

Oh Disney Tree

I really love our disney tree - all the ornaments remind us of our family vacations and adventures.  There are so many of them - this year Addy and I got about half up and called it quits.  (I think we were motivated to wrap up for dessert too.)

I think we all agree, this might be our favorite:

Last year Addy and I made ornaments at our resort during one of their crafting nights.  They are up this year on the tree.

Sometimes we get gifts to add to the tree too!

Over the years my parents have helped us add to the collect and we've got all kinds of special ornaments now.  It wouldn't be the same without our Disney inspired tree!

Hollidazzle

This year I came across this lovely sweater at Walmart and decided that a theme was in order.  (Who makes an alcoholic Christmas sweater?)

So, I worked hard the night before . . .

And ta-da . . . its the crazy drunk relative.  Complete with a tipsy red sparkle bird on my head and lipstick smeared on my face.

It was a great time!  Shane got to enjoy this new tradition.

Everyone dressed up and looked festive:

These were the top three winners - Marc took the prize home.  But huge props to Stephanie that worked in pajama pants and Jill with barbie heads on her sweater.  Outstanding!

Definitely another successful celebration - happy I got to be a part of it!