let my love open the door to your heart

{Christmas Sunday}

everyone says that their family is "da besssstt." "number one." "super duper."
i'm no stranger to these phrases.
my family is the bomb.
we do the coolest things together.
we have a blast together.
we love each other NO MATTER WHAT.
proof of our coolness, blastness, and loveness = our recent family reunion at Beaver Creek Lodge. the theme: let my love open the door to your heart (think: dan in real life).
let me take you on a picture journey through our fantastic time together. (makes me wish i was still there).

{welcome to the lodge. dozens of private rooms, a huge common room, a huge eating area...and so much more. what do you do there, you ask?}

{how bout a little foozeball?}

{or a joke by Uncle Mario? guaranteed to laugh...}

{or how bout spending some quality time together, Mr. M & Mimi?}

{or, better yet, how bout some latin aerobics, directed by the super fit Aunt Marianne?}

{tired yet?}

{how bout a nice morning stretch?}
{or a nice snuggle with Bela, Aunt Kris, and Dany?}

{Ohhhhh, you want to do something FUN. how bout playing in the snow?? well, you need to get your snow gear on for that....and that can get tricky. Bela is proof of that. snow gear is uber poofy. it often takes two to get decked out for the snow}

{it also often takes laying down flat. it's worth it though}

{don't forget your bandit mask, dad}

{mom, did you know you have wings sticking out of your bandit mask??}

{even babies need snow-gear}

{turns out, El's loves the snow}

{and Aunt Karen's kisses}

{Sean & Court made each other laugh a lot}

{and Mr. M was a trooper, even though combated the flu the entire trip}

{going out in the snow is an adventure with a 6-month old}

{El's loved sucking on her zipper}

{almost everyone enjoying the cold}

{Ellie loved Danyelle}

{and she loved getting to spend quality time with daddy...doing things like watching movies...}

{eating shoes...}

{she also loved being loved by little Denim}

{she did NOT, however, like waiting to open presents}

{but she liked to eat them when they were opened!}

{classic Christmas morning photo. i look wasted. ugh}

{notice the very sparse tree...wouldn't you think they could find a tree with a little more needles than that, seeing that we were in the mountains? never really understood that...}

{Ellie hung out in her pj's all day...and even borrowed Uncle Sean's hat. looked pretty good on her}

{in the mean time, it snowed all day. never seen so much snow in my life. see that trailer? that's just SOME of it. craziness}

{then there was the talent show. little Dany was a dancing flower}

{Mr. M, Alex & my mom played "let my love open the door"}

{Mimi shared her cuteness with all of us}

{and so did Bela}

{Andrew was a pirate}

{Livy was a Barbie girl (turns out, at our family talent show, the popular thing to do is dress up as something you're not...it's like a big costume party)}
{Mimi and i shook our hot booties}

{and my mom blew us all away with her mad guitar skills. how does she do it?}

it was a fabulous Christmas...with much more than i posted...including delicious food, a white elephant exchange (aka YANKEE SWAP), games games games, wonderfully generous gifts, laughing, singing, dancing, wow, the list goes on. it was one of the best i can remember. sad it's over. but so grateful for the memories!

xoxo