when in doubt, share your christmas tree photos

you know, if i've said it once i've said it enough time to elicit a trillion eye rolls - there just ain't enough time in a day. or maybe it's not time that's keeping me from blogging lately but good home-cooked imagination, motivation, exhilaration (that last gem was kind of a stretch, but only kind of). but seriously, it takes all of those things to hash out even mildly comprehensible rants. and i'm not complaining, because nobody asked for this little sliver of heaven-in-a-blog - believe me, i know! - i'm just lightly peppering the screen with excuses to take up space before the video (taken on a dark and grainy cell phone video camera - sorry)...

and pictures...

we spent the holidays back home, in south dakota, like we always do. but before we left, we had allison stop over to take a few pictures of our little family in our little arlington apartment. it's important to us that we remember these moments that are slipping by so quickly, and us in our home seemed like the perfect way to encapsulate our family this christmas season.

one more of our little gal, taken by me (the non-professional), because you've been good.

my angels in front of my mom's christmas tree the night before christmas eve. since we were kids, my brothers and i have always woken before the sun on christmas eve to celebrate christmas with my mom. there've been many version of this tradition, but without fail santa has always come by 4:45am christmas eve, my mom, my brothers and i are always there with bells on (some of us trying harder than others to hide our glee), and every year we walk away dizzy with happiness and completely in awe of the amount of generosity that spills from our family's hearts. this year, like all the years did before, takes the cake as my favorite.

because of these guys :) all of them woke up before the sun rose, some tried extra hard to hide their glee, and every single one of them left the adults completely happy and a lot dizzy. because 4 kids, all 4 and under, throwing around colored wrapping paper as they paw towards their next gift, or desperately gouge at their last gift to dislodge it from its packaging, are straight chaos and are louder than 17 freight trains crashing through the living room window. no exaggeration, i promise.

henry made a haul (boy loves his batteries).

we had such an amazing time with joey's family on christmas eve night. seriously, soooo blessed to have the family that we have. i know i say it a ton, but it can not be said enough!

and we rounded out the trip at the farmers market on friday night with my dad. my dad and brother made my niece and nephews this amazing play food stand, complete with cash register (not pictured), awning, and baskets of any bread, fruit, or melon you could crave. henry craved them all, and took big gaping bites out of eachandevery piece of not-juicy-at-all produce. sorry guys, those fruits just looked so delicious! he stopped mid-chomp after he realized (again) not a lick of that styrofoam was tasty. 

we got home late on sunday night, after a long day of not flying, then flying, then bribing a squirmy/unhappy child with chocolate on the drive from the airport, etc., etc. etc. we left sioux falls a few hours later than we'd planned, but luckily we weren't stuck at the airport the whole time we were delayed because our airline called 10 minutes before our alarm was going to chime its petulant ring to tell us to stay in bed an extra 3 hours and rest. so we did. 

but flying out of a midwest airport in december means mandatory delays for de-icing, fiddling around, etc., etc., etc., and we were still about an hour late flying out, even after our first delay. aaaaand, because of the added delay after the delay we missed our connector in dallas and spent a rousing few hours enjoying texas for all that it is. rousing.

but we made it. through the silent prayers and joey's thrown out back (luggage can be a beast if you let it) and constant flight anxiety exacerbated by additional turbulence and a blessed extra seat nestled right between the two seats we paid for on the flight home. we made it. and like we always do when we find ourselves in particularly harried situations, with a tired and not pleasant henry, we promised each other we would 1. never fly again*, 2. never have another baby**, and 3. seriously, never fly again. 

i hope you had a wonderful christmas full of family and laughter, good food, and big, genuine hugs from people you see too little and love so much. tomorrow is new years eve, and i get to stay home and catch up on my tea drinking, bath taking, and lazy making. i plan to get my hair cut, a luxury i never knew would sound so sweet. happy new year!

* we lie to ourselves about never flying again everysingletime we fly. we both hate it, for completely different reasons, and we always end up doing it again and again and again. 

** scared ya, didn't i grandmas. god willing i will have 6 more babies, but no - i'm not pregnant, for all inquiring brother-in-laws ;)

a christmas marathon

joey, huck, and i spent the last week in south dakota visiting family and celebrating christmas with the most important people in our lives. we arrived back home last night around 6, and although we were relieved to walk out of the airport to 40 degree weather - a big change from the below zero temps we were (not) lucky enough to find in the midwest! - we felt a little like this as we began re-adjusting ourselves to life away from family and friends.

thankfully, my mom and her husband are incredibly generous and have gifted us with a set of tickets back to sd any time we want! we are so overwhelmed with gratitude for everything we were blessed with throughout the christmas season.
 

because i like to toot my own horn and bore you with lists, let me just tap out a little run down - complete with illustrations (or photographs) - of our not-that-relaxing christmas vacation...

huck and i caught the 6:30 am flight out of dc last wednesday, but my little cherub missed the early rise memo and kept this zombie mommy awake until 1:30 that morning. our little cat nap was just about the cruelest way to start a journey across the country, but we like to keep things extra spicy around here. an hour delay getting out of dc made us late for our connector in chicago, so we scurried around the airport together praying to the high heavens for a leedle tiny break, and wouldn't you know it we got on the next flight to sioux falls only an hour later. we be blessed!

henry and i landed in sioux falls around 11:30 am that day, and spent the afternoon making christmas ornaments with my mom and cousin and sleeping off our hangover.

just.so.sleepy.mama

that night we visited joey's family and played a wild round of pass the baby. henry loved seeing grandma judy again and meeting his grandpa, aunts and uncle, and cousins!

love at first sight for these cousins

the next morning we woke bright and early for a road trip to minnesota so huckster could meet his great grandparents and a couple of great aunts who took time out of their day to drop by for a surprise visit. it was so great to see everyone! but time doesn't stop for this crew, so we rushed back to sd for the rest of the day! h and i had a date with some of my best friends from high school and college back in sioux falls where henry met landen and mason, and then spent the rest of the trip begging me to go back over to his buddies' house. we had to cut the love sesh short though, because grandpa rick was still on our list for the afternoon. poor grandpa got the short end of henry's patience stick, and h was not afraid to let us all know it by cry.cry.crying it out until we stuffed him back into his carseat so he could fall directly to sleep not 4 seconds after we left the driveway. sorry grandpa rick, we really do love you!

new best bud, landen

h and i ended the night with a visit from my cousin alyssa and my aunt and uncle. our cup runeth over.

not spoiled even a little bit

the next morning joey flew in and my memory starts to get a lot foggy as we scampered around town and tried to visit/see/pester as many of our loved ones as possible for the rest of the trip. henry was baptized on saturday evening and my brother travis and his wife jessie became huck's god parents, along with grandpa greg. on sunday we drove back to minnesota to celebrate christmas with my mom's family. sunday night was christmas with my dad. on christmas eve we celebrated with my mom and her husband, along with my brothers and their families. we went to 4:00 church with joey's mom and spent the evening celebrating christmas eve with his family. on christmas, huck and i slept a ton and the next morning joey caught a flight back to virginia, and huck and i followed only a couple hours later. we spent the holiday not-at-all-bored! here are some picture highlights.

henny's baptism

a visit with the big guy. h couldn't be bothered.

fun with the finkes

joey is back to work today and henry and i are trying our darndest to get to the bottom of the laundry pile and catch up on sleep (henry's doing a spectacular job of the later as we speak). i hope you had a wonderful christmas! tune in for the next round of days-in-the-fascinating-life-of-a-new-mommy if you care dare.