christmas in... march?

it's never too late to post christmas pictures, right??

well, let's start off with our christmas tree in wisconsin.  i'm actually surprised i decorated this much--i was so tired and huge... getting the christmas lights wrapped around the tree was not easy!

i figured i might as well pull out all of our nice ornaments since it will be a few years before we can decorate a tree with breakables down low.

this is the ornament david picked this year... it's a knight--he's starting his knight/castle/wizard collection.

i picked the carousel ornament because it was baby-ish and girly.

david was on vacation for the month of december, and by vacation--i mean, the most stressed out you can be, traveling across the country interviewing for residencies and i basically told my work that i was taking a long christmas vacay whether they liked it or not.  so we were able to spend almost 2 weeks in california for christmas.

it was a small crowd this year... 2 siblings were at their in-laws for the holidays.

here is a gem... tyler was getting ready for church and apparently showing me some of his sweet moves that he uses to get all the hotties at the youth dances.

the following obligatory christmas portraits...(i want to apologize for only bringing a purple dress--it was all that fit, and mom making everyone else find something purple to wear... she is definitely a repeat offender when it comes to impromptu family pics)

mom and tyler

mom's favorite kids

me and tyler

missing our other girlies...

i was so uncomfortable with this picture... i have no idea how people take those weird maternity portraits...

this is the best picture of grandma on christmas morning... let's just say things got ugly after she finished helping tyler wrap some presents (non-stop barf through all of christmas dinner... everyone was nervous.  let's just say, grandma had plenty of left-overs)

don't worry, she wasn't sick the whole week.  we got plenty of card time in with her.  play 9 is seriously the best game--so glad grandma is a card shark.  she also gave us her last set of cards.  #sorrynotsorry

david just enjoying the christmas morning atmosphere.

saddest staircase picture in 27 years of christmases.

these boys love home alone-- i thought they would like these shirts... they did.

you might be thinking, why are the girls pajamas so big??  well, macy's only had size large and we were desperate on christmas eve.

tyler got some real grade A christmas gifts this year.  weights?

a face ice-mask?

7 giants world championship sweatshirts?  you know... in case they never win again.

me with a cute pink lamb christmas ornament... the start to a ridiculous collection of baby ornaments.

amber ruined all of her christmas surprises.  who knew mom was so good a pinterest?

david holding a sweet dress amber got for the baby.

the best present under the tree!!  tyler was really bitter that he and tubman were bumped from the family christmas card--so he made mom a phone case covered in them!

my mom spent the last month scouring ebay for a beary merry christmas advent calendar to make for david since that is the one his mom had in their house.  we spent the rest of the week collecting beads and trims and ordering light packs to make this thing as sparkly as possible.  hopefully i will post a picture of the completed project next christmas.  (which is 9 months away--yikes!)

merry christmas tubs!

i made some giant sticky buns... some people blame grandma's illness on these--but i swear they were FDA approved and delish!

mom sometimes forgets that she buys presents and then she finds them later... like this nutcracker.  we also know that there is a delux sound of music dvd pack in andie's wedding shrine room that no one got... maybe next year!

grandma got sick mid-dinner prep, so the appetizers were a little lacking this year.  we decided the artichokes were safe because the water was boiling when we got there.  we were not sure about the chicken chilli dip and she made so much!! kind of felt bad--but like, you have to draw the line somewhere.

chicken chilli dip... mae mae was not phased.

i could also make a whole blog-post of people trying to stop me from taking their pictures...

bubba claus was not camera shy!

mom and aunt carma's giftcard game is getting more ridiculous every year!  we all love it!

we basically spent the rest of christmas and the day after christmas setting up carma and mom's worst christmas gift they could give grandma ever!!

who thought an ipad, a wireless printer and wireless keyboard were great ideas?

the girls, plus a dog (i'm not sure if this is the dog mae had to leave early to go walk...)

the whole gang

andie came the next day--but i have no more pictures... i must have been too tired.