holly jolly + a rockin' eve

WARNING: Extremely picture heavy post! I'm going to go ahead and take us through the whole rest of December, so bear with me on this one. 

A couple of weeks into December we went on a little Christmas light sightseeing adventure with the Camello fam. As usual we hit up Cripps Court, some of the houses in Mission, and a couple of Glenmoor spots. To my dismay, this trip did not include hot chocolate. What is that?! Instead, G Daddy and Anthony had Budweisers. It was VERY white trash, just saying. 

Please do marvel at the huge stack of gifts we purchased for people this year. I officially hate wrapping gifts with brown paper, no matter how cute they may turn out with ribbon tied around them. 

Ant and I also got to hang with mom and Scarls one day before I went over to Nana's for some Christmas cookie decorating. It was a really fun day! Too bad Sebastian slept through it, hahaha!

I also caught a couple of our traditional Christmas movies in the last days before the 25th. Dad and I always watch "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" and we subbed "The Grinch" for that weird VHS that Anthony insists on watching every year. It's inexplicably missing, so.... (and no, I didn't hide it)

We also had a nice little hot tub sesh with Renee, Jackie, Katie and Anthony, which was followed by a rather disgustingly late meal at Carl's Jr. Honestly though, I CAN'T WAIT to be able to go in a hot tub above my knees again!

Christmas Eve finally arrived, and we were so excited to have my mom's side of the family over for a little dinner, dips, and Secret Santa before church. Lucky for us (not) - the power went out right before everyone arrived. Lucky for us again (for real) - it came back on shortly thereafter! Not everyone could make it, actually most of my family couldn't make it, but we still had a great time together. 

After my house we headed to church, and after church Anthony and I drove over to Nana's house for lots of desserts and family time. Uncle Donny was a pretty badass Santa as usual. 

We went to bed VERY LATE, but got up bright and early to open our gifts before heading out for the rest of the day. I got a pretty funny gag gift from Anthony - this toy puppy. Angie was NOT IMPRESSED, and kept barking at it. We returned it and now we're rich. Toys are freaking expensive, right?! 

I had been saving up some keesh and so with the help of my brother Joey we built Anthony a brand new computer, which I am typing this on right now. Who says that gifts can only be for one person? hehehe

I have to say that my favorite gift from Anthony was my robe. I have not been in this house without it on since then. It's SO SOFT!!! We kept it very simple both last year and this year (aside from the computer) and it's been good to know we aren't overdoing it moneywise.

Axel and Angie got some new food and toys in their stockings. Santa was good to them. I tried to get Angie a new bed, but it's so small that I actually think it's meant for keeping human heads warm while camping, hahahaha. Beehive hairdos forever! (see below)

We also address all of our gifts TO: "something creative" FROM: "something creative". Anthony pretty much ALWAYS uses sexual innuendo when addressing his - it's hilarious. My favorite this year was To: My Carpenter, Love: The Receptionist. Yes, I wrote it, and yes, I love it. 

After our morning present opening we showered and got over to the Camello's for MORE gift opening. I did pretty well with gifts for the family this year, I have to say. My favorite gifts were Renee's ironing board cover (which I sewed. It wasn't a difficult project, but I am still learning) and Jackie's book. Ry got some sweet ass gifts from us too!

I received some really cool gifts from all of them too! I can't wait to have some Moscow Mules post-baby. Yum, yum. We also visited the Darbo family out in San Leandro before heading over to my mom and dad's for the rest of the afternoon/evening. 

Our Christmas holiday is always so jam packed, but there are so many people to visit with that we really wouldn't change it for anything. We'll see how well baby Camello does with all this stop and go nonsense that is our regular day to day life. 

At mom's this amazing nap happened. I guess mom caught it on camera because I found this on her memory card yesterday. hahahaha

We had a great time with my family and the twinnies (even though they were mega sick, poor things!) A lot of gifts were given, but again no one went overboard - which rocked! My favorite gifts were all the things I bought for people on Etsy. I love handmade! I think the best gift that we got from mom and dad were the tickets to the Sharks/Kings Metallica game. That is going to be so much fun!

Let's see... the day after Christmas Grandma Weems came by to visit. That was a good time, as always! Love that spunky grandma of mine! After that we went out for a date in Livermore to try out the food at this little gastropub and watch "The Interview". Guys, the move is so good. Go see it, rent it, buy it when you can! #Jamesfrancoforever

On the 28th we drove up to Benicia for a skate day / post-Christmas pig out on leftovers with Brylex. It was a very cold day, but we managed to get sunburned. We also checked out the Benicia State Capitol State Park. I donated a few bucks, thus getting us a pretty sweet tour, including ghost stories! It was a great day in the North Bay. 

Since then Anton has been mega sick, so we've been sitting around the house watching The Office and reading (me, obv.) while he gets better. The only exception thus far has been New Year's. We went CRAZY that night - we got SUPER WASTED. No, we went to the Camello house and watched the Channel 7 special for a few hours; I popped my first popper, and baby Camello got his or her first New Year's kiss from dad. It was perfectly chill for this year. 

The end. 

Goodbye 2014 ::: Hello 2015!

Kels