the magic of christmas day

there is nothing more magical than christmas morning. it's like time stops. you are surrounded by family and everything is warm and cozy and there are treats all around, people are laughing and it is the heart of winter and you are snugly wrapped in bliss.

we woke up late on christmas morning after a wrapping extravaganza the night before. joey and i made monkey bread and my little household relaxed waiting for the whole fam to arrive.

i went and put on the dress i've been saving for the big day. i procured this pretty gunne back in the summer i think! the velvet trimming at the bust is a deep forest green, set against the scarlet red calico, in the classic gunne prairie-girl style...she's my ideal holiday frock! 

beattys begin to gather....

ready to hand out gifts....

being older and wiser now...giving gifts to each other is super fun in a whole new way. nothing too extravagant, a lot of special handmade items, and always hand picked for the individual in mind. 

one of my absolute favorites this year, that brought tears to my eyes, was a photo album darin put together for me. all the photos were from recent trips and excursions, sometimes just the two of us, sometimes with the whole family, sometimes just me by myself in nature. looking through it, i felt like a queen or a famous person, like a goddess, so loved and blessed by all the beauty i've encountered. plus, we never print out our pictures anymore so it was just so fun to see them there in front of me in a little book, each hand chosen by my husband with his artistic eye, and with a beautifully textured and hand-drawn cover and binding that he designed. here's my dad looking at it....

he made a little album for joey and em too, choosing his favorites of photos he has taken of them on our adventures.

and mikie made this rad wood-engraved frame for addie, which brought tears to her eyes. we are nostalgic and sentimental folk, through and through.

by this time it was late afternoon. we all headed down the hill to sacramento where my 99-year-old grandma georgie is in a care facility because she fell and broke her arm. she looked so old and fragile in that bed without her glasses or her teeth, but her spirit was just the same as ever! she was coherent and funny and cute and talkative.

here she is cracking up with addie and joey.....

mostly she was just thrilled to see her little room so squished with family.

she has always been the most family-oriented person i know. she has about a hundred grandkids and great grandkids, and she knows all their birthdays. we are all eagerly awaiting her big 100th bash this feb!

back at home, it's getting late and we set right to work making out big mexican feast!

i made veggie enchiladas, joey made a mexican style frittata, mikie made spanish rice and black beans, and we chopped up a whole ton of salad fixins on the side. plus dad made two huge containers of his famous salsa! by the time we ate we were so starving that we polished off plates as high as hillocks.

everyone stayed late playing Seinfeld Scene-It, laughing, and eating all the leftover fudge and goodies.

what a day. it is enchanting to have a whole day like that. darin and i slept out in the living room by the fire, and i felt so blessed as i snuggled in to read, look through my photo album one last time, and finally rest my head.

hope you all had the sweetest christmas ever!