christmas for 40?!?!

helloooooo puppets! so my original plan was to finish posting photos from my christmas excursion last night… but when i walked out of work and found this:

i knew it was going to be a long night.
rather than spend the next 4 hours in storm-ageddon traffic, we opted to hang downtown in hopes the traffic would clear. so naturally, we went to a bar…

we waited until after 7:00 and it still ended up taking us over 2 hours to get home! people of portland, if you’re out there, STOP VAPOR LOCKING IN 3 INCHES OF SNOW…
that being said, i didn’t get any photos posted last night.

so here i go, but first, i, of course have to kick things off right… with the second to last installment of the tour de tacky!!! i only have one more mug after this, and trust me, there’s a reason i saved it for last!!!

but for now…

i know this isn’t completely offensive, but we’re talking office coffee mugs here… how did this flowery teacup get into the stash??
oh, perhaps you can’t appreciate the best thing about this “mug”…

really? what kind of a cup of coffee is this tinkerbell size thing supposed to hold!?!??!

like i said… trust me… you do not want to miss tomorrow’s mug! it was the original inspiration for the tour de tacky, and is actually a real conversation piece at the firm!

as for my christmas photos… here goes nothin!

my family has a pretty set christmas tradition… get up and open at mom and dad’s house, then the other siblings and their kids come over for round two, and then we all have breakfast together.

last year i decided to start a tradition… i am going to get my nieces christmas pj’s each year for them to wear to bed christmas eve. i was excited to see when they made their way to my parents’ house this year, they were still wearing their jammies!

has anyone else noticed addie is into doing a LOT of posing these days??

some highlights from the gift extravaganza…

(yes a metal detector, and yes he was excited)

(ooooh awwwww quarter zips just like our daddy likes!!)

(fancy nancy!!)

(super cute nikes purchased at a super discounted rate!)

then we all enjoyed christmas breakfast…

(did you notice the “last supper” picture with the gangster lean?? oopsie!)

then given that my sister threw her back out and was supposed to be hosting 40 of our closest family members for dinner, i headed over to her house early and began setting the tables.

again, addie greeted the guests and monitored the appetizers…

i made pomtinis with the LARGE jug of POM juice i conned my sister into buying for me at costco!

(oh, sidenote** speaking of pomtinis… right around the time the first round of pomtinis was poured my medicated sister sideswiped my glass and poured an entire pomtini all over my little camera… so blame her, or the pills, for the quality of most of these photos. it limped along for a while, but the camera is completely nonfunctioning now. i’m hoping if i take it and have the booze residue cleaned out of it i can get it going again)

anyhooo… moving along…

dinner was kicked off with my father saying grace (ok, maybe he led us in “my country tis of theeeee” in true “christmas vacation” style), and then we all got our grub on!

later we had a small game of “apples to apples” going…

dawn (yes, still “hopped up”) enjoyed a small bite of dessert

i’m not sure how this happened, but apparently there were then some ropes being jumped in the living room???

then a hot game of scattergories was played, during which dawn tried to explain to us just how milking a cow could legitimately fall under the category, “leisure activities”…

we pretty much closed down the place with the completion of the scattergories game.

the next morning i woke up to find addie admiring her new polly pocket structure

we quickly decided a candyland tournament was in the cards!

she appears angelic, no? but trust me, when you’re 5… it’s REALLY hard to not win at every game of candyland! my favorite was when we were both nearing the end of the trail and addie pulled the dreaded gingerbread man card (that means you have to go back to the beginning of the game)… she clutched the card close to her chest, her eyes stared straight ahead… the card came slamming down onto the table and i heard, “I QUIT”… done, out, game over!! hahahahaha DRAMA

but she quickly changed her mind and was back once i started shuffling cards again!

there was only one thing that could have busted up the candyland marathon… and it was a trip with the girls to see “the squeakquel” (that’s the second chipmunk movie for those not in the loop!!)

given that alexis was still recovering from the tonsilectomy, and had overdone it on christmas, she had to stay behind and rest =(
addie made herself comfortable in the van…

(notice those cute shoes from the nike employee store… i wonder who would have given her those for christmas??)

it was mission accomplished!!

the next morning i had to get up early and make my way to the airport… an uneventful hour flight, and i was back in portland…

christmas is definitely a time i want nothing more than to be with my family! we have so much fun, and this year was no exception! thanks for allowing me a couple days of reliving the shenanigans.

family, i love you!