We've known the groom's family for at least 10 years, so it was weird seeing Stephen getting married. (You know, the same one you had snowball fights with when you were little) Mom, Emily, and I were the only ones who could make it, but we were really glad we went.
Congrats Steve!.jpg)
After the Santa hats were distributed, we commenced the opening..jpg)
Anna's "surprise" gift, a new snowboarding jacket..jpg)
We've used a combination of about 4 sets of silverware for the past ten years, and slowly our stash has been dwindling. We can't imagine why forks get lost so easily, unless the boogieman steals them, or more probable: they get thrown out with paper plates by incompetent people. So this year someone had the brilliant idea to get mom a silverware set that actually matches! .jpg)
Me with the best movie of the year: Up. It's pretty much amazing..jpg)
It was a very merry Christmas..jpg)
A bowl full of clementines....jpg)
Our favorite ornaments on display....jpg)
Freshly squeezed fruit juice....jpg)
And stockings on the wall .jpg)
^ (Yes, there's an oddball in every group) ^
And I'm afraid the rest are of Zoe, she stole the show. :) She makes the best faces.
And when she feels like she's been left out of a conversation, she let's herself be heard.
She looks so intelligent. I think she knows something I don't.
With Grandpa.
With Aunt Sarah.
Rockin' her shades.
She liked it.
Ok, she loved it. She's totally ready for roller coasters. Whoohoo!!
Mom went too.
Grandma and all the aunts with the babe.
And with Mommy.
Of course Anna and I had to go on. 
It was rather thrilling.
Mr. and Mrs. Pilgrim decided to join us, made out of old film role cases. Yes, from back in the dark ages.
Our rather long table (or three).
That weekend we went out to the restaurant that Teresa and Emily work at for dessert. 
Anna H. (whom we lovingly called "big Anna" since we had two), Emily, and me.
Our two lovely servers. The place was basically empty except for us, so they got to hang out with us for some of the time and steal bites of our desserts.
Out in front of the lit-up moose.
And of course Dad couldn't be left out of the fun!
It was also good to take a break from normal life and think about the things I was thankful for. I really have quite a long list."The people I love are always somewhere else and not able to come to me, while I can at any time fill the house with visitors about whom I know little and care less. Perhaps, if I saw more of those absent ones, I would not love them so well— at least, that is what I think on wet days when the wind is howling round the house and all nature is overcome with grief; and it has actually happened once or twice when great friends have been staying with me that I have wished, when they left, I might not see them again for at least ten years. I suppose the fact is, that no friendship can stand the breakfast test, and here, in the country, we invariably think it our duty to appear at breakfast. Civilisation has done away with curl-papers, yet at that hour the soul of the Hausfrau is as tightly screwed up in them as was ever her grandmother's hair; and though my body comes down mechanically, having been trained that way by punctual parents, my soul never thinks of beginning to wake up for other people till lunch-time, and never does so completely till it has been taken out of doors and aired in the sunshine. Who can begin conventional amiability the first thing in the morning? It is the hour of savage instincts and natural tendencies; it is the triumph of the Disagreeable and the Cross. I am convinced that the Muses and the Graces never thought of having breakfast anywhere but in bed."
-Elizabeth and Her German Garden
I get to see these pudgy little cheecks in a month and a half! :)
Then we had our family dinner that night. 
I call this the converse square of love. <3
It was a good time.
Getting some last rays of Summer.
All of the sisters except one.
The birthday Girl:
TWLOHA