christmas with my family!

because my dad had to fly until monday [christmas day] and jamie and i had to go back to work on tuesday [and mike on wednesday], we had less than 24 hours that the six of us could be together this year for christmas.  this bummed us all out a little bit [hopefully next year we can do better!], but we made the best of the situation and really had the grandest time.  we drove back to denver from breck in the morning, mom picked up dad from the airport, and we all congregated at my house in the mid-afternoon on christmas day.

the festive afternoon kicked off with a little bit of cooking – jamie, my dad, and i made our family’s traditional waffles [on jamie’s waffle iron] with whipped cream, chocolate chips, and strawberries… i posted a couple pictures of them in this post.  it was sort of a late lunch, but it really made it feel like christmas for mike, mom, dad, and me, since that’s what we always eat on the day we’re opening presents.  then we got dressed up and exchanged our gifts, which took a few hours.  there was snow on the ground outside, a fire flickering in the fireplace, and dad was going to town on his guitar as per usual ;) …we sipped on wine and beer and had hors d’oeuvres for dinner while we opened presents.  it was pretty perfect.

i really loved that we were all coupled up this year!  i think it made it a very happy christmas for everyone.

we took a couple family photos too.  just for fun, here’s a cute outtake:

a silly one:

ha!  for the record, priscilla is NOT pregnant.  that we know of. ;)  that is a pillow under her sweater!

aaaaand a “pretend-we’re-normal” picture:

lol.  great times!  i just love these people.

the one and only disappointment of the evening was that we all planned on going hot tubbing that evening, got in our swimsuits and ran out to the pool in the dark and cold, only to find out that it was locked for renovations!  we about froze to death trying to make sure that we had the right key and all that, but indeed, it was not open.  so we ran back to my apartment, put on our comfy clothes, and played the most hilarious and totally wrong game to play with your parents, cards against humanity!!!!  all of us kids had played it before so we knew what we were in for [and for some reason still decided to play with our parents?!], but my mom and dad definitely did NOT know what they were in for!!!  it was extremely awkward and uncomfortable but i guess we all thrive in that type of situation because we all laughed til we cried.  so i’d call it a win! ;)  and then we had a big sleepover at my house and then the morning came and i was ready to cry because it meant back to work and back to real life without my dear family that i love so much.  but it was such a memorable and fun time with my people and i’m so very thankful they were able to make the journey up here.  thank you for all the wonderful gifts [i loved every single one].  I LOVE YOU, FAM!  xoxo