things you shouldn't put in your christmas tree

WARNING: this post contains an absurd amount of pictures

well because of the school that my dad is proudly representing.. the whole family wasn't quite all together this christmas. way to go byu-h. i told erika i would take lots of pictures.. i don't know if i did THAT well.. but i think i covered this night good.

Monday night - Family time at Dave and Brenda's

erika this is us driving there..

and then we got there.. and we helped make lasagna

you can see the lasagna to the left.. and jenelle, jamie, soph and jeff all hanging out

calgary in the winter is perfect when you lack freezer room. sometimes i think outside is colder than a freezer.. i am pretty sure it has been most of the time i've been home. but i am no freezer expert.

does this punch look christmasy and delicious? it was both.

Good thing little rhyse was there to cook us dinner... actually he didn't cook it.. he just pulled it out of the oven for us.

i like this picture because it shows the pure JOY of christmas on sophie's face

apparently i was too busy eating to take pictures of dinner time, obviously it must have been good because i wasn't looking for other things to do during the eating time. but after dinner out came the candy.. and we made some gingerbread (graham cracker) houses.

everyone working..

more of everyone working... can you see me scoping out the competition? was it really a competition? no.. but i do like to be better at everyone at everything i do.

so going with the theme of houses.. candi and i started to make a TeePee. it even had a fire inside. but who's ever heard of a christmas teepee? not me.. and it wouldn't even be fun to decorate. indians believe in 'the great spirit' too.. that takes the Christ out of Christmas right there. so we decided to take our teepee in a different direction

mom and brenda working..

dave working.. he also drew blueprints, as only uncle dave would. too bad he drew them on the BOTTOM of the plate.

Jef with one F's finished product

Jenellie-belly's

J.J's. Please note that Joel looks like an arabian woman in the background..

Dave's

Brenda's

Sophie's

Lauryn's

And Candi and I's.. okay so its not a house at all (unless maybe you are a squirrel or a bird)..

Afterward we played some really fun games. i learned 'the thing' game. this is us playing it.

And this is Dad playing it..

let me just say the weather has been SOO cold.. and there is LOTS of snow. i tried to get some pictures showing just how much there is.. but i don't know if this shows much.