Tratsie: Christmas Re-cap

At the request of a few family members this will be a photo-heavy, Christmas-lovin' post only. Well they didn't exactly ask for that only.. but it's already late and it has been taking me forever to load photos in my BRAND NEW photoshop! on my BRAND NEW laptop!!!! So, I'm not complaining, but this will be short and sweet, with no mention of food, running or any of the usual obsession-driven topics.

Christmas was crazy busy and crazy wonderful this year. As a newly married couple, the husband and I spent a lot of time working out the logistics of our new blended-fam Christmas, but it all ended up being so worth it.

We started the festivities with "Little Christmas Eve," a traditional dinner for the Soltman family. Because they are sweet, the whole family agreed to move the dinner to our condo. Lucas works into the evenings so it made it much more feasible to enjoy the dinner at a reasonable hour. The guests included Lucas's two brothers, Mom, Dad, and 1 Girlfriend. Sidenote - new girlfriend is Canadian, which I am very happy about...

It is a well known fact that Bella has to be either playing fetch or on someone's lap at all times.. I swear one day we will try to train her a little better.

Keith's new girlfriend, Bonnie

After dinner, doing what we do best: drinking wine and chatting

Even Bella wasn't left out of presents.

Love this picture of Lucas and his dad, stinking cute!

Prom Pose!

Some dessert

And finally the night ended with some Kinect boxing action.. I wish this was a video, as it was so funny to watch them.

Next stop was my Dad's on Christmas Eve. I am a poor blogger and only took one picture.. what do you know.. of food. (I am obsessed with taking food pictures right now).

This is my dad's prized Key Lime Pie for dessert - Lucas's favorite!

We spent the night at my Mom's so that Santa would know where to go. Bella tried to stay up all night hoping to catch a glimpse of the Clause, but when her bone ran out, she fell asleep. Maybe next year girl..

After we had breakfast and opened stockings & gifts at my mom's, we made the short trek up to Vancouver to see more family. Every year, we go back and forth for Christmas with each other; this is absolutely my favorite tradition and I like to ignore the fact that some year soon, we won't all be able to get together anymore. My cousins are maybe top 6 funniest people I know (and there are 4 of them) and my Uncle John even officiated our wedding ceremony. Not to mention, our Grandma always makes it over as well, which adds to the laughter and warmth.

Uncle John opening his gift from my Mom

My cousin Tobin caught me trying to sneak a pic of he and Ali, his fiance. Don't worry, he's not really mean-mugging, just being funny.

Grandma and I looking through the wedding album Lucas and I gave her for Christmas. This picture cracks me up because everyone is looking different places, and I don't know if Tobin was trying to be funny or not.