a nutella sinus infection christmas, lyrics by dolly parton

so many activities from year to year are identical at the holidays. riveting concerts of transcendent musical talent, sugar-laden school parties, and lots of christmas movie watching. 

even athena blythe was yawning through her concert. she was super cute, but we all know we're there for our 5 minute act and not the 47 minutes of pre-school drivel of the kids we're not related to. 

this is reagan's favorite friend at school. her name is sarah d. and reagan says, "sometimes she just wants her quiet time and doesn't want to talk to me. but she still likes me." undaunted. 

i didn't yell more than once about this broken vase from our wedding. got it out and then i felt better then i cleaned it up. one loud feral cat in the alley screech and all was good again.

i ran a 5k christmas eve morning and when to my wandering eye should appear, this grown man dressed EXACTLY like reagan. reagan in 15 years. 

reagan even sported a very similar pair of shoes a few years ago.

Georgia Man was greeting race finishers with his sidekick, little hersch. i think he liked me best. i didn't see him tongue kissing anyone else. he said it was a prize for the 115th finisher, but that seems pretty specific. 

my mom is the best person to have at a finish line. she makes you feel like you just beat ivan drago in rocky 4. i saved america and democracy!

my brother in law, dan, works in the grocery industry and gets the best samples. and he brought them to my house and i didn't talk to anyone else for the duration of the visit. it's good that my family is good at deciphering closed mouth grunts and pointing. no one came between me and my friend nut-ella. he was a better tongue kisser than Georgia Man.

possibly the cutest picture ever of my kids wearing their pajamas. 



possibly the cutest picture of cousin gwen wearing a bear beanie on christmas morning. it says, she's tough, but also likes to cuddle.

scarlett seemed a bit disappointed with her gifts because we got her exactly what she asked for. and that's no fun. i'll have to remember to have a few more tricks up my sleeve next year. 

reagan was super easy this year. normally, he's a bit of a puzzle but green sneaks and queen stuff.

despite the gifting extravaganza just a few days prior, today athena blythe and scarlett spent a good portion of the morning hiding an old box of plastic easter eggs around the house. glad i went to so much trouble to make all their dreams come true.

just the best, nicest little family. 

and an okay family with medium niceness

something special with these two

this is my favorite picture we took with grandma and her east coast grandbabies. hath a greater family action photo been wrought?

photo dumping:

being the cynical jerk that i am, i don't get too choked up by celebrity deaths. i don't know any celebrities except for my sister who went on a date with donny osmond's son, 10 years ago. but princess leia is kind of a special case, so we watched a lot of star wars movies and did our hair in cinnamon buns for multiple days after hearing of carrie fisher's death. next week on the agenda is a family viewing of the 'burbs, carrie fishers most underrated role. 

 "i want to kill everyone. satan is good, satan is our pal." 

it's a movie quote, not a lifestyle.

 and of course, singin' in the rain is in the plans for too. we're supposed to get "snow" (which means moisture but will be treated as a blizzard because we have zero snowplows here) in georgia so it's the perfect weekend to watch movies.

my body was just waiting for christmas break to get sick so our fun christmas break activities have been limited. i get drunk on dayquil so i can't even drive very far but we made it to our favorite bakery, special kneads. 

sharing a chair and eating bang bang chicken

light reading, plus a topknot. 

thomas, being the ultimate surpriser, brought home a ping pong set for our kitchen table. between illnesses and eating leftovers, this has been quite the highlight.  

and i've already acquired one of the kid's stocking stuffer headlamps for my own personal use.

because there is something really great about reading a printed book. no offense to my faithful kindle.