New Year's Eve--wha!?!

*because blogger is taking ffffffffffffffffffffffforever to upload pictures, I'm posting as is and not spending any more time on making ths one make sense.  I need to move on....

We had the distinguished honor this New Year's Eve to attend the wedding of our friend Adam, and his beautiful bride Stephanie.  They decided to just go all the way out and throw the party of the year, since they were getting married on such a party-day.  And they did.

I myself have never been to a wedding so schmancy.  it was two full days of events.  And they treated all their guests like royalty.  Wow!

Oh, and Spencer was asked to prepare a toast for the groom, which he did, which shocked the socks off the poor bride's family, and might have all but ruined it for some of them.... but I don't like to talk about that much.  I will add that at least 40% of the attendees were laughing their heads off and came up to him afterwards to tell him it was awesome.   Oh, Spencer...

After the wedding we were only about 5 hours from Chicago so we decided to go crash Cliff and Gina's place, which was a really really good idea, if I do say so myself :)

We had so much fun and the kids just loove eachother.  Thank you to them for being such wonderful hosts.

Can Christmas Please Post Itself?

Wow, it's like my body instictually knows it is now the year in which it turns 30 (and therefore: old) because all the sudden 9 o'clock hits and I'm in a dream world, just dying to climb into bed!  and this is my new excuse for becoming a negligent blogger.

But seriously, folks... Christmas was wonderful!  I tried really hard this year to have a good balance of checking off the "things that make it Christmas" list as well as the ever elusive "slow down and enjoy the reason for the season" thing.  I have to say it made for quite a wonderful time!

Here are the pictures, with captions and probably more of my ramblings interspersed:

made gingerbread houses (graham cracker houses) and used all the candy we had on hand instead of the traditional stuff.  nobody complained.

Layla looked like this the whole time.  "CANDY!!! TWEATS!!  AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"

Spencer's (above), Campbell's (below)



Cadence's, above.  I love how it looks like a stable. 



The Angel and Mary with Baby Jesus, waiting to begin our traditional "Shepherd's Dinner" on Christmas Eve.

One present before bed, Pajamas from Mamaw and Gramps.

You know you did something right when the presents they are hooked on enough to ignore all the pretty wrappings cost you 4 dollars.  (our oooold laptop and a "grocery store" we got a a garage sale).

traditional Christmas morning breakfast: pannettone, hot chocolate, and eggs.

SANTA CAME!!

How did Santa know that watch is just what I wanted?!?  I guess he got the link I sent him.

Santa spent a good amount of time in the dark, cold middle of the night setting up this huge tent from Mamaw and Gramps. 

just thought this was adorable.  Enjoying the beautiful, spring-y Christmas day together.

Had lunch with the Flemings and the Hanbergs and the missionaries, followed by the cutest little nativity reenactment you've ever seen.  during rehearsals, Mary and Joseph (Cadence and Gavin) were seen travelling by donkey (Gavin's new bike) to Bethlehem.

I always get really homesick on Christmas, so to battle that, I typically invite as many people over as I can.  This was our spread.  I have to say it was pretty awesome food.  So fun to spend Christmas evening with my adorable family and some really beloved friends.

I decided to do New Year's Eve separately because I have too many pictures, and blogger takes about a year to download them.  So that will be next.