Holiday Photo Montage

Feeling a bit under the weather today so it's a good time to do something easy like upload photos. It's getting a bit past prime for all the holiday stories I'd hoped to share so I thought I'd just give you a "holiday in review" post instead and call it done.

Joli getting a hug from "Papa" for her gift to him of a Build-a-Bear Faery Monkey. It's a monkey because Hubby loves monkeys and it's a faery because it's a Joli monkey. When you squeeze her hand (the monkey's hand that is) she says "I love you Papa!"

Sam being silly with his favorite gift this year, an adjustable wrench.

Since Joli loves those little Cutie brand tangerines, I bought two bags of them for her visit. Lisa brought an entire bag of them with her. You can see we have enough tangerines for an entire preschool. Check out the tangerine tree, the tangerines in the bowl, and tangerines in the hanging basket in the background!


Lisa holding up the photo of Twilight's Bella wearing gloves just like the ones she's wearing, a gift to the latest vampire loving member of the family. Joli got into the act by holding up her gift as well. (Pssst, when she unwrapped it, it's a broom!)

Of course it's always fun to stick the chihuahua in a stocking at least once. Poor Rosie.

Take a good look at this gift's wrapping. Now, the story goes like this. Sam hands me the gift and he says "I wrapped it." Gee, like it's not obvious that it's wrapped by a guy! William adds "Hey, I helped!" Apparently William told Sam that the wrapping wasn't all that great. Sam said maybe he should fix it. William said "No, I think it just needs some ribbon." And he added it for him. Yep, that fixed it, for shur!


I had a lot of help at the wrapping station as well. None of it very useful help, but that's pretty much what I expect every year.


Lisa and William are talking to Joe on a webcam and chat. There was a long delay between photo and the typed conversation as it went halfway around the world - made for an interesting conversation. It was nice having Joe "here" for part of the holiday.


A Yule Queen wearing her sparkly crown. Note the black eye? She got really excited when her Mommy finally answered a question correctly on our New Year's Eve game night, raised her arms, yelled "HURRAY!!!!" and ran face first into the table. Ouch!

A teen and a two-year-old playing on the floor.

Wild party at our house on New Year's Eve! We played Battle of the Sexes, Apple to Apple, and finished up with a rousing game of Encore where everyone gets to sing - usually badly and off key.


We even had poppers, noisemakers, and confetti, although we were watching the wrong clock (which was running five minutes slow) and almost missed using them at midnight.

And now all that's left is the clean up. If I feel better, maybe I'll take the tree and decorations down tomorrow?