bockting christmas brunch.

last sunday was the day we celebrated christmas with danny's family. d and i hosted his mom and dad, sister and makaela (earl was out of town) to a brunch and gifts at our home. having christmas shopping, wrapping and decorating done by december 9th was pretty aggressive, but also a nice push to get things done.

our bockting brunch was fun and mellow. i made a night-before breakfast casserole, biscuits, cinnamon rolls (a bockting christmas tradition), fruit, mimosas and brownies for dessert. miss makaela kept us all entertained and "side" (outside) for as long as she could.    

....

it's been fun to have a new home to decorate. new places for garland, trinkets and the tree. i mean, trees - plural. yup, this is our second christmas tree of the season. remember the debacle we went through to find the first one? well, yeah. about that. days after we hung the lights on our huge tree it was officially dead. as i started to hang ornaments in preparation for sunday christmas brunch, crunchy needles just started falling to the floor and i was not having it. i mentioned getting a new tree to d and he laughed like i was kidding - and then realized i was not. sooo my wonderful and extremely patient husband humored me, pulled out the ladder, unstrung all the lights, hauled the tree out of the house and we started over. back to the lot, loaded up a new tree on the mini, brought it home, re-strung the lights... i think this is a prime example of "happy wife, happy life." 

i really don't like hunter's lame stocking. anyone want to make him one? 

our new tree is so green & fresh. now only if i could find the my missing box of ornaments. hmm.... 

our "merry & bright" sign from last year's christmas card fit perfectly between two sconces.

christmas in arizona. festive, huh? three of the sweetest i know hanging out in our backyard.

what's not to love?

checkin' out the loot.

little miss snacking on cinnamon rolls.

the brunch spread... minus the casserole that took forever to bake.

we decided to all squeeze into our tiny dining nook to eat

makaela's "woooow" face checking out her new purse. huntie obviously in on the action.

awesome personalized gift tags.

me and the dogg.

an inside joke. a special chex mix batch for b-joe.

i love this snap. every single thing about it.

matching toms for makaela and tricia!

time to get crafty! 

take your bone dogg dogg

our attempt at a self-timer family photo. not too shabby. you should see the 12 outtakes. ha.