fa-fa-fa-familyyyyy

I promise I am alive. And well!! Just busy. Tis the season, right??

So there was my birthday last week-- fab. I had so much fun on our quick day trip home to see my parents, siblings, and their +1s (that's blog-speak for significant others. I'm just in the know like that.) Since I only see my beloved sister about 3 times per year, I figured this would be my only chance to see her this holiday season since we're both spending Christmas with our husband/boyfriend's families. Since I had bought her the Christmas gift of a lifetime (she has had a burning desire for adult-sized footie pajamas for years and been unable to find any to meet her needs...but big sis DID!) I absolutely needed her to open it then and there so that I could witness her excitement. She did not not disappoint and made haste to try those puppies on and wear them around the house...in the middle of the day, in front of God and everyone. That's why I love this girl. Look at her rockin' those pjs.

I promise I am not that gigantically tall. She's shoe-less, though, and I'm wearing tall-ish shoes...but I don't normally look like such an Amazon woman!!

This is what we look like when we talk, apparently. We're animated speakers, I guess!

I tried to catch non-posed pictures of everyone at dinner. Here's Sarah and her +1.

Jake and his lovely +1.

And my parents.

And here's us at my birthday dinner. Yay for family and moms to cook!!

Mom made my all-time favorite cake...rainbow chip cake with rainbow chip frosting, and PLENTY OF IT. Don't laugh..you know you eat that stuff straight from the tub, too. And if you don't...you don't know what you're missing.

$1 to the person who guesses what I'm wishing for!! Haha. And look at the faces of Mom and Mattie behind me...my adoring fans.

So that was supposed to be the last I saw of my sis for 2009. But lo and behold, come Monday morning she was calling me asking if she could come up with my parents for the weekend to visit MY house and do Christmas!!! Wahoooo!! This is truly monumental-- she's visited Athens maybe like 5 times in the 9 years I've lived here. So I was so excited to get to a) see her again and b) not have to drive!! So today we enjoyed a wonderful few hours of hanging out, eating at Sarah's Mexican (1 of 2 sit-down restaurants in my town...and so appropriately named!), putting Matt and Dad to work, watching Hoarders, and introducing Mom and Sarah to the wonders of Awkward Family Photos, People of Walmart, and Cake Wrecks. Their free time will never be the same again.

Photographic evidence:

We did "Sarah's Christmas" which meant we all opened our presents to and from her. Here's an attempt at a decent photo of our tree this year...why is getting a good pic of a tree so hard?!?! I will keep trying.

Here's what Matt and Dad did while the ladies were dying laughing at the above mentioned webpages.

Finally-- and perhaps MOST importantly-- we replaced our ugly, hideous, inherited-from-the-previous-owners dining room chandelier today!! My parents gave me money to buy a new one for my birthday, so we finally bought it and Matt and Dad got it installed today. This is huge-- that old one was killing me slowly. I am SO happy with the replacement (and the fact that it got bought and installed all on the same day and isn't going to sit in our garage for 3 months while we try to figure out how on earth to do it!!)

Before: Heavy on the brassy gold plating and fake crystal. YECH!!!

Let's get a closer look at that baby. Ooohhhh yeah.

New one!!! Wahooooooo!! Welcome to the 21st century!! (Which is strange, by the way. Because this house was only built in 2003, so the former light fixture couldn't have been THAT old and must have been bought this decade. Which begs the question....why????)

I'm so happy!! Yay! So, that's the down-and-dirty of the last week. In between seeing my family, I've been working and working out (more to come on THAT) and eating dinner with my beautiful friend Alyssa and shopping and wrapping and TOTALLY looking forward to Christmas and more time with family and friends. And a few days off of work, too.

So tell me...how totally jealous are you of my sister's footie pajamas? Because I'll admit, I very nearly kept them for myself once I saw them (in all their Easter-colored camo glory). I found them online and YES they did have some versions that featured the all-important BUTT FLAP...unfortunately, that feature cost about $10 extra and these babies were already pricey enough. But seriously. I think lots of us should get them and then have a FOOTIE PAJAMA PARTY.

You comin'??