christmas 2009.

okay, so i've totally been mia.  hopefully i will get my act together soon and have something to write about.

i'm hoping to close out 2009 over the next few days.

yes, i know it's january 4th.

i'm a little late on the closing out.

first of all i just have to point out, is this not the most amazing place to grow up?

seriously, gorgeous.

not only is the landscape beautiful...so are the people.  i pulled in a driveway and got out of my car and walked over into the field to take this picture.  when i came back into the drive the man that lived there had come out to check on me to see if everything was okay.  we had a nice little conversation before i left.


okay, now on to the christmas pictures. 


i have to tell you, i am terrible about taking pictures at family functions.  i get so frustrated that the lighting is bad and that i have to turn the flash on my camera that i normally just give up after a few minutes.  and apparently that was the case for christmas.  when i downloaded my pictures, i realized that i only recorded like 2.5 christmas events out of the 7 different things we did.  


so, i'm just gonna put up what i got.






every year we do christmas with my godparents/aunt and uncle, another aunt, and my grandma.  we do a nice christmas supper and then open gifts.  we always have a blast.  
for real.

bon bon and sid.

bon bon opening a gift. 

by the way, look at her cute outfit.  seriously, adorable.  her flannel shirt and red scarf.  too cute.  funny story - she wore her crocks to our house because she had gone out and went back home before coming to my parents and she lost her ballet flats when she went home.  so she just wore her crocks instead.  seriously, soooo bon bon.  love her!

mom and sid's bf, casey. 

this is after he opened his new, engraved bible.

mom deemed it "present of the year".

don don and sid.

love my mom's choice of wrapping paper.  well, i might have just helped her pick it out :)

seriously, hobby lobby is the best place to go.  such a good deal for a ton of paper that is super cute.

court, my brother's gf.

showing off her gift from my grandma.

sid is excited. 

i think mom missed the memo.

my daddy.

seriously, i haven't seen him smile this big for a camera since he showed off his prize.

colby got a new driver from don don and bon bon.

he was so excited.  we all went out to watch him hit a few balls...in the snow.

now, here's the part where there should be pictures of our christmas with worker man's immediate family, then pictures from worker man and i celebrating our own christmas, and christmas at worker man's grandparent's house.  but i obviously dropped the ball.  because i have none, zip, nada.  i'm lame, i know.  i'm just going to blame it on the fact that i'm a baby hog and there are a lot of babies in worker man's family.

not that that is an excuse for not taking pictures of me and worker man opening presents - guess i was just more excited about opening our new computer :)

so now, that we've determined that i'm totally slack in the photography of holiday family events --- let's move on to christmas morning.

bedheads.

every year my mom buys my brother a nutcracker.  she started this when he was young and now gets him one every christmas.  so this was the first gift that was opened.

well, this was the first christmas gift.  my mom's birthday is on christmas day so we always make her open her birthday presents first.

sidney lee, super excited about her pez.

don't tell mom...but worker man found it in the trash the next morning.  i think she'd be fine without the dispenser if she could just get multiple refill packs.

admiring the boots that her favorite sister bought her.

worker man getting another dave ramsey book.

he was stoked!

okay, so after christmas morning with my family at 6 am.  we head over to my papa's house to celebrate christmas with my dad's family.

every year we get a picture made with all the cousins. 

here's the 2009 picture.

we also have a lot of gag gifts that are passed around.  for years, one of my grandpa's drivers license from years ago was passed around.  it was like a mug shot and it was always so funny.  everyone dreaded getting it because they would have to keep them all year to pass them on to the next person.  we have also passed around these awful candle holders that look like roosters.  they are seriously, the ugliest home decor i've seen.  and we've also done a donkey hat in the past. 

well, this year when worker man and i came across this, we knew that we had to get it for a gag gift.  

it plays a song and the lights start flashing and the whole top half flaps back and forth.  it's hilarious.  i immediately knew that we should choose my uncle stanley to give it to.  he's hilarious.  if i can find it and get my act together on this here blog, i'll upload a nice little dancing video from last christmas.  

he was such a good sport and everyone loved it.

the entire family.

and of course, between every decent picture, there are about twelve pictures like the one above.

now here's the next part where i should have pictures of christmas with my mom's family.  but, i'm sure you're not surprised by now to find out that i forgot to get out my camera there too!

but i'll end on a good note :)

sidney lee and i with the birthday girl.

it really was a wonderful christmas.  it flew by waaay too fast but it was fabulous.