christmas 2008

consisted of:

too much food...

too many presents...

not enough photos...

and not enough time to enjoy it all.

(in other words, it was PERFECT!!!)

nieces riley & lindsay were our lovely hostesses

and so much the grown up ladies, one would never suspect that 3 minutes before the above photo was taken they were 2/3 of a giggle pile with their cousin jillian. (unless, of course, aunt lauren took a photo...which she did!)

when cousin maddie arrived she immediately donned a snow white costume (avec accessories, naturellement) from the dressing up rack. because let's face it, however beautiful one's christmas dress, it is EASILY trumped by a princess outfit!

young matthew, who had been poorly the week before actually slept through most of the festivities, but did enjoy some quality cuddle time with his aunt sandy

lest you think that such quiet moments are representative of our family's holidays, lemme just set you straight on that. really, it's more like THIS (by which i mean chaos theory...as enhanced by small sugar-filled children and lots and lots of stray bits of giftwrap!):


just in case the gap is blog-surfing, looking for its next set of all-singin' all-dancin' sweater models, here ya go:


here is probably my favorite pic from the night, mostly because it represents the holy grail of niecely photographs:
all three girls & their grandmother
facing the camera
**in focus**
complete with pleasant facial expressions
CHA-CHING!!!!!!!!!!!!


amazingly, not only did i remember to hand someone else the camera so they could snap jeff & i...but the one photo taken actually came out!!! (i'd like to figure out how to color correct it just a bit...we look very slightly as if we've contracted jaundice here; but hey--i'll take it!)

by the end of the night, i think we all felt a bit like this:

...which of course is the universal sign of a perfect christmas, come to an end.

hope that your day was equally merry and bright!!!