holly jolly.

we had a great christmas.

matt got a whole week off somehow!

we went to spend time with my family, then his family.

and we didn't take pictures.

fail.

my dad took lots, but i don't have those.

but, i do have some iphone snapshots of our time. so here are some random moments i thought were worth documenting!

date night--out to dinner and catching fire. so great!

micah with a guitar.

that's not even one of his presents.

but it was cute.

my dad's "omelette" for me.

though he said, "well, i'm not that good at omelettes." and then, "wow, that looks runny." and then, "the water didn't really go away." (water?!) so i threw half of it away.

completely worth documenting. haaaa

i think they like each other.

my brother was a dancing shepherd in the christmas play.

last year, he was joseph and micah was Jesus.

micah got demoted this year to kid-in-nursery-while-grownups-watch-program... 

but ben clearly got promoted. he got to dance in front of all of us.

christmas pjs for all!

our little family.

two of our nieces!

i just love them both.

mesmerized by fish.

hand in cheerio container. always.

hair a bit mullet-y. we need to fix that.

so then, for new years, katie and susan came.

it was our fifth year of celebrating new years together!

and they loved on micah... and he was obsessed with them.

 we made homemade ice cream (we got an ice cream maker for christmas!)

 we arted it up.

 games, naturally.

matt's pieces need to be sanitized.

and we also got to meet baby caleb, my college roommate's newborn!

micah needs to calm down the lovin a bit.

he can't stop. he won't stop.

family and friends for a week and a half straight. 

few things could be better.

bring it on, 2013.

and here is a bit more from our holiday season...

wine glasses dipped in chalkboard paint!

to make, i just bought wine glasses and dipped them in chalkboard paint and used a sponge brush to take off excess. then i laid them on an empty christmas wrapping paper roll to dry.

and new years celebrating...

 partying, game playing, pancakes, crepes, bbq, eating out, baby, puggle, and friends.

 and blessing jars.

to write a blessing a day and put in... and read at the end of next year.

the black square is chalkboard paint. obviously.

 bring it on, 2013.

the weekend when many of my favorite things happened all at once.

so, new years eve.
you're supposed to get dressed up and go out, right?
not this year.
...this new years weekend, we did many other of my favorite things:

thing #1 i love: going out to dinner.
thing #2 i love: slows bbq
thing #3 i love: incredible friends. and a wonderful husband.

 thing #4 i love: fires in the fireplace.

 thing #5 i love: gift exchanges. (these are the scarves i made)

thing #6 i love: cheesy sweatshirts.
thing #7 i love: glorious gifts from people that know me well.

 thing #7 i love: fun wrapping and artsy pictures. (thanks, matt).

 thing #8 i love: anthropologie mugs.

thing #9 i love: bailey.
thing #10 i love: GAMES. like settlers. which we played tons of.

thing #11 i love: group pictures wearing everything we got. we have many years worth of pictures like this one.

thing #12 i love: amazing headwarmers. 
thing #13 i love: mustard yellow and gray together. (duh. thus the new blog design.) insert huge mustard yellow bow. joy.

thing #14 i love: when making something is successful. check out the headwarmer from all angles.

thing #15 i love: katie teaching sus and i how to make things and then solving all our issues along the way.

thing #16 i love: making clothes! amazing cardigan, right? yep. i made that. with more than a little help from katie.

 thing #17 i love: sewing days.

thing #18 i love: homemade mug cozy. never will my hand get too hot or too cold again.

thing #19 i love: homemade meals. cilantro lime tacos. (find them here) to start off our new years eve.

there it is. many of the things i love, all in one weekend.

ahhh.

happy 2012!