jamie’s family has a tradition of celebrating christmas together over new years at their cabin in the black hills of south dakota [remember the gorgeous scenes from july in this post and this one?], and i delighted in joining them this year! i love his family, and it was a treat to get to celebrate christmas with some cute little kiddos [jamie’s three-year-old identical twin nephews sawyer and finn] since everyone in my family is grown with no kids! also, the cabin in the snow was every bit as beautiful as i dreamed it would be. when we looked out the giant windows, all we saw were hills and tons and tons of green trees adorned in white snow and sparkly icicles!
between our trip to breck and this trip, our christmas celebrations definitely had a theme going on this year… log cabins + snow + hot tubs + hygge! completely unlike my christmases growing up in texas and visiting family in florida, mississippi, and arkansas, but i just loved it. it was really cold in deadwood [the coldest weather i’ve ever been in!], and i didn’t leave the cabin once during the whole trip! but it was actually quite lovely. very relaxing after all the stress of getting ready for the holidays and my chaotic job. we were planning on going out in downtown deadwood with jamie’s siblings on new years eve, but ended up just staying in [where it was warm!] and taking it easy. here are some photos from the weekend:
{it’s a six hour drive to the cabin, so by the time we got in after work on friday night, it was super late and everyone was in bed. we slept in the next morning, and my sweet man brought me this yummy plate of breakfast in bed. i’m so spoiled!}
{good morning, south dakota!}
{i love that they put a santa hat on the buck!}
{scenes from the cabin}
{yep, definitely the coldest weather i’ve been in!}
{isn’t it pretty?}
{the twins! our socks matched, so i had to point that out.} :)
{playing with uncle rob! looks like he caught two big fish!!}
{reading with aunt ashley and uncle rob!}
{more books with aunt ashley! and just laying down, eating their candy canes. so cute!}
{wintery sunset}
{one of the highlights of the trip for me was getting to look through all the old family photo albums! this is my precious boyfriend as a baby!!!! heart. melted. i took about a million other photos, so you can definitely count on me posting more in the future!} ;)
{the next day, we celebrated christmas. the boys even got to blow out candles for baby jesus! here they are with grandma, getting ready to open presents!}
{opening up the big present with grandpa! the boys got a brio train set for christmas from their grandparents. it’s so funny because my brother got one of these for christmas when he was little too, and we’ll always remember it because after he opened it up, we kept asking him if he wanted to open another present, and he kept angrily yelling, “NO!”}
{they love their trains! also, aunt ashley and uncle rob read them a story about the birth of jesus. i’d say that those two totally deserve the aunt and uncle award!}
{i got so many wonderful gifts from jamie’s family! his mom and sister obviously know me well. ;) his mom had this awesome theme of “i love you with my five senses” and give me different gifts that i can smell, taste, touch, hear, and feel. such a cool idea.}
{trying on some hilarious, sparkly reindeer glasses from jamie’s mom along with a scarf and a ring she gave me! i love them! and i will caption the photo of jamie: “blinged-out reindeer thug life.” or something like that.} ;) ;)
{ashley got a pair of fun, sparkly christmas glasses too! and jamie got a nice pair of ray-bans from his parents since his other pair are pretty badly scratched up.}
{the boys also got some puppies that belong to chip, their elf on the shelf. they were instructed to take good care of the puppies…}
{…so here’s sawyer keeping the puppies warm by the fire! adorable.}
{out the window}
{jen was nice enough to snap some photos of us outside in front of the pretty trees. i love how they came out.}
merry christmas and a happy new year! and thank you so much to jamie’s wonderful family for including me in the festivities, for hosting us, and for all the amazing gifts + food! i love you guys! xoxo