When children are present at Christmas...

...you get to;

open presents early, endure heightened levels of hysteria, ask people to use their "inside voices," feed bottles, change diapers, keep secrets,

do gymnastics to get the jitters out, check www.noradsanta.com one thousand times to see if Santa is getting close, learn playstation games,
play "shoot-guns," loose your patience while assembling polly-pocket's-rollercoaster-waterpark-house-of-unending-fun,
dance, sing, explain the rules of battleship fifteen times, eat candy, ride bikes, have six-year-old assistance with everything including putting your makeup on,
laugh, cuddle, and ENJOY EVERY MINUTE.

Things you DON'T get to do when children are present at Christmas;

sit patiently and wait.

I'm not sure she know what was going on, but I think she had fun

Santa Baby

Merry Christmas to all

Finally.

I've been waiting for this for 133 days.

Tonight I finally got to squeeze little Harper O.
Oh how I love her.

just in time

I am so blessed to live in Colorado where a "white Christmas" is pretty common.

And where - even though I don't live in the "prettiest" part of town - beautiful pictures are within walking distance of my little home.




I nearly froze these off to get these shots. Sheesh. It was brutal.

Seriously.

Is this really necessary.

Another 5k to start the day

This one was hosted by my volleyball club to raise money for MS research.

If we look a little desperate here, it's because we could just barely see the finish line. Time to run fast and be done.
Great weather. Snowy path. Lovely company.

Oopsie-Daisy

Tonight, on the way into our friends' house, I dropped a box of beer.

Two beers broke,

and filled the box with bubbles.

Mark called a party foul

and took two dollars off of my allowance.
Better luck next time.

Over. Whelmed.

Photograph. Edit. Order prints. Deliver prints. Deliver CDs. Go to Post Office. Tutor. Prep students for finals. Grade papers. Re-learn algebra. Make gifts. Buy gifts. Volleyball Practice. Volleyball club 5K. Sister coming home. Christmas parties. Make food. Grocery shopping. Small group. Adoption paperwork. Adoption meetings. Christmas volleyball camp. Go to hockey. Clean house. Write emails. Make phone calls. Clip coupons. Balance budget. Work out.

Go to bed.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

It's been a very busy few weeks for me and, as a result, the majority of my house is a bit disheveled. It's quite unorganized really.

But this corner is ready for Christmas, and that makes me very happy.

Party Schmarty.

We had ourselves a little christmas party complete with

gingerbread house building,

an ugly sweater contest,

a three-category mustache contest,

and a white-elephant gift exchange.

Behold the ugliest sweater (individual) of the night,
and the winners of the ugliest sweaters (couple) award.
And here we have the seven mustache contest contestants in which three prizes were awarded.
Jason receive the award for the fanciest mustache,
Dave won an award for the creepiest,
and Jeremy - perhaps the greatest winner of them all - won the Tom Selleck Award.
And Mark and I received two plastic swords and a James Dobson book during the white elephant exchange. Lovely prizes, if I might say so myself.