you're not the real santa... you're not tarnished with ashes and soot

christmas 2011 was great!  david and i landed around midnight on christmas eve eve, just in time to wish mom a happy birthday at her favorite place to be: LAX.  only her second airport trip of the day.

we chit chatted for a while and then it was off to bed.

christmas eve morning started early!  we had breakfast and then had tyler get dressed up in an early christmas present from santa (david 1 helped him pick out the right gear).

tyler keeps getting taller... but the shoulder pads really make him bigger than the christmas tree

nothing says christmas like a little bath-time fun with your puppy.

("i will literally kill you put this on facebook"-tyler)

he's not as naked as it looks.  lol.

then it was off to the nutcracker ballet for the girls minus kourty.  maybe the best part of the whole event was checking out what everyone else thought was ballet appropriate attire... sequin mini tube dress at 10am on christmas eve?  really?

addie had the most gorgeous princess braids

so excited to see the show

best nutcracker buddies... what's happening? where did the boys go? where's clara?

intermission... we really wanted to take a pic on the stage

sisters by chance, frenemies by choice?

we were so hungry and andie was hoarding the sour patch kidz.

amber and i had to share 1 kid!!

so, the show was a little longer than we had anticipated, but addie was a trooper. she loved the whole thing

scarfing down some random sees candy for lunch on the way home from the ballet.  we ran out of good ones in like 5 minutes.

then it was time for a quick walk to the sev with the pup before the christmas eve party.

this dog really hates walking... and that fake baby never stops crying.

then it was time for the 20something annual boberg christmas eve party.  after a delicious feast it was time for the kids to re-enact the nativity.

we had dueling marys...

and a korty sneaking in the play

everyone's favorite part of the party... singing carols

andie's face says it all.

larry gets out of all the pics because he's the resident photog... 

always ready for a pic

we're not sure why ambie dressed like taylor swift...

then santa's helpers had work to do so we took off and opened santa's workshop in my mom's living room.

sometime you wrap presents

and sometimes you have to try them out...

my mom is one grandbaby short of having to get a bigger mantle

the best christmas present of all (even if being a teen dad is harder than it looks)

with a christmas bow and everything

mom is about the same number of grandbaby or son-in-laws away from needed a longer staircase.

tyler and addie are so over it... bring on the gifties

kourty thought santa's left over cookies were the best present ever

addie's special disney princess day book

christmas cuties

andie really came through with the cinni bears this year

christmas hugs

one of the weirdest, yet probably most popular presents... tangled hair

love it

addie's nutcracker... only she would have picked out the most sparkly purple nutcracker out of the whole gift display

we had a few minutes before we had to be at church so david whipped up some fab stuffed french toast with bananas foster and caramelized pecan topping.  mom, working hard on not burning the bacon.

one of the only moments this dog was peeing on something the whole week.  he's like a ninja.

andie trying to finish a puzzle that was driving everyone crazy

the finished product

then we attempted to take a christmas picture with everyone, didn't really happen...

christmas outfits

who can photo-shop this for me??  like, it's probably a really good picture...

christmas reds

the sisters weren't having it.

after church we skyped with the bfields for a minute (hi conner!!), cleaned up a bit and headed over to grandma's for what we hoped would be a thanksgiving redemption...

appetizer table looking much fuller than last time.  1 point grandma.

kourty made a new bff: tara!

here is a quick pic of mae... we barely saw her, she had to leave to wash her car.  she had been planning it for weeks.

addie sitting with santa and mikey and fernando trying to convince her it was the real santa.  she knew better.  she knew it wasn't the real santa because he wasn't covered in ashes and soot.

kourty: not a santa baby

even if it wasn't the real santa, she'd still take the car.  the only thing left on her christmas list.

(big thanks to uncle mike for putting that one together!)

then came a new christmas tradition, one we hope doesn't make it to 2012.

my grandma coerced my mom and aunt carma to play a fun game with the gift card exchange this year by passing the cards around switching directions based on words from "twas the night before christmas."  who knew it had 300 verses??  addie did.  she knew all the words!  amazing.

also noted: the worst christmas present to give a grandma: kindle fire.  you're just asking for hours of tutorials.  glad it wasn't my idea!

carma trying to explain the internet for the 100th time.

barely listening at this point.

the end!  i hope everyone was happy with their gift card.

still munching.  all she wanted was "fluh" carma made a new peppermint fluff fan this year.

david trying to explain the internet to my grandma... not really successfully.

the rest of the week was filled with great food and fun times and lots of measuring and weighing.

we went to cafe rio and loved every second of it

we got manis and pedis after waiting like 4 hrs... not pictured: laura--she's way over ----> 

she was actually getting a mani and pedi, andie amber and i were just having our skin soaked off.

lots of snuggles with ambie... i found out how she gets them to love her-she has a secret stash of cookies in her bedside table. tricky.

princess cupcakes

claim jumper celebration dinner.  we were celebrating everyone going on a diet on monday and tyler not dying in the mud caves.

also, amber ran over tyler's leg... while he was in the car... i don't buy his story, but here he is trying to show us how bad it is.

got ranch?

cheers!

well, that was it.  christmas was the best!  happy new year everyone.

wisconsin is having a heat wave.  not a flake of snow on the ground, so you guys should all come visit!