A Beagle and A Baby

Monday, January 5, 2015

Christmas Day

Elliott, delightfully, slept in on Christmas Day. We actually all woke up when Spencer bounced out of bed at 8:15. He was excited to the max. But luckily he is also easy going and he was fine with waiting while we had some homemade egg nog.

I have no idea why Spencer is making this face, other than that he can't seem to take any pictures without making weird faces these days. I think it's a 7 year old boy thing.

My mom always makes homemade egg nog on Christmas morning. It wouldn't be Christmas morning without it.

After our brief refreshment it was time for presents!

Elliott opened one present, this one, and then refused to open any more. He would shriek and cry and refuse whenever anyone brought him something. It was totally lovely and made me really happy to think of all the money we had spent on him. Spencer ended up (happily) opening all of his presents.

Spencer made us this snow globe at school.

He refused to open presents, but he did not refuse to play with his presents.

Spencer wanted me to take his picture with Jabba (from Uncle Nathan and Aunt Kendra).

He was copying Jabba's look here. I think this is my absolute favorite picture of all time. I'm printing and framing it. Soon.

Uncle Nathan and Aunt Kendra got Elliott this megaphone voice changer. It is as obnoxious as you might imagine.

After presents we ate breakfast.

And then I remembered to take Christmas morning pictures with this kids. These were Spencer's favorite presents.

And Elliott's

He insisted on holding this dog, which was not a present, to take a picture looking at the camera.

After pictures we all relaxed a bit, then we got ready, then we headed to Michael's parents house.

First things first, we got an official Christmas day family picture for our Christmas memories book.

Official

Time for MORE presents!

After we did presents the rest of the guests arrived. I missed getting a picture of Diane and Galen though,

My mom and dad

Michael's Uncle Gary and Aunt Linda

Nick and Michael doing the brother-in-law head tilt.

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of eating, drinking and laughing.

It was all too much for Ginger who found a warm, cozy place to curl up for a Christmas Day nap.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Christmas Eve

Hello, hello.

I have finally gotten my act together to write the first post of 2015. We spent an entire week in Tucson for the holidays and then I have been blog- lazy, but not life-lazy since returning home on Tuesday the 30th.

We drove down to Tucson on the 23rd. It took me almost all day to get us packed up and ready to go, so we didn't get there until almost dinner time. We ate dinner with my parents and then walked around Winterhaven, a neighborhood that goes all out with their lights.

On Christmas Eve we were invited to a luncheon at the home of my parents' long time friends. These are all the people at the luncheon who graduated from the same high school. We were in the classes of 1959 to 2007.

On our way back to my parent house we saw Santa out for a ride. A motorcycle ride.

We went to 4:00 mass where both kids did surprisingly well. We didn't have to leave church to walk around with anybody outside. A Christmas miracle!

Once we got home I wanted Michael to help me test the lighting so we could take our Christmas Eve family picture.

This face is a long running inside joke that only the two of us are privy to. It started back in, like, 2004. Maybe 2005.

We tried by the front door,

but decided to go with this one in front of the tree as official.

Michael and his dad and uncle were dressed as triplets. This was totally unplanned.

Elliott has become obsessed with taking our pictures. He will only pose for a picture if we pose for one after.

Nick special ordered and made foie gras as an appetizer.

It was drizzled with truffle honey.

My mom made a delectable crab and corn chowder for the first course. The rest of the dinner was also delectable but I was too busy eating to take pictures.

After dinner we opened presents.

Another Elliott picture.

And, of course, got things ready for Santa and his reindeer.

Spencer snuck in later and added the dollar bill. He said that Santa deserved a tip.

Elliott wanted nothing to do with putting the cookies out, but he was all about airplane rides.

After the kids were in bed Nick, Michael and I enjoyed some drinks by the fire in the chiminea.

We went inside sometime after midnight and were delighted to see that Santa had made a very quick visit. He got in and out in a matter of minutes, I think. We didn't even hear him!