christmas here and there

Or should I say, Merry Week in-between Christmas and New Year’s during which you just feel like napping and not going to work or doing laundry or much of anything! I’m quite sure that for most of my life, I never knew that New Year’s Eve/Day were only one week after Christmas. New Year’s must have been such a non-event for little child me that it was completely consumed by week-old, leftover excitement about what had been Christmas. Now they hold somewhat equal excitement and I love that they come one right after the other. The above picture, as you might have guessed, was our Christmas card picture this year. I went totally non-red-and-green. Surprised? Yeah, me neither. I did put some snowflakes on the letter. That’s gotta count for some festiveness, right? Actually, I couldn’t be happier about the lack of snowflakes around here. Late december in the mid-50s? Yes, puh-lease. Sorry, snow-lovers, I’m a cold hater. In my opinion, Christmas can be just as festive without the whiteout. Here’s our cheery little absolutely huge tree (the back half is missing a number of bottom branches so it would fit in the corner without blocking access to half our house):

And despite my feelings about snow and cold, my family packed up and headed to Colorado for some skiing, board games, frolicking in the snow, eating, eating, eating, and an inevitable family photo session by yours truly. We’ve learned to document the few times a year that we’re all (9!) together as it’s becoming more of a rarity.


I took advantage of having my fresh-faced & nicely dressed parents in perfect lighting and a lovely backdrop by taking a few shots of just the two of them. I wish I had more of these types of photos of my parents during all the different stages our family has gone through. It makes me want to document my own life better, even though I’d usually rather be behind the lens of the camera, not in front of it. I love that I got some of them laughing. We laugh so much in my family. These are incredibly true representations of my parents.

Boys will totally always be boys, given the opportunity. Throwing rocks from the bridge onto the frozen ice of a creek, trying to make it crack. No luck.

It was refreshing to spend time with the newlyweds. Good thing we like her. 😉

Some boys will consider their adventure quota filled by throwing rocks down on the ice. And then there’s Jeff. He must climb down to survey the damage.

Oh yeah. We went skiing, too. Copper mountain blessed my soul with views of mountains that overwhelm you with their majesty. We had gorgeous weather (maybe a little chilly, but ya know, I’m pretty weak sauce), zero injuries and tons of fun. David made his greatest strides of improvement yet on the slopes and I was incredibly proud of him. Friends, if you are a skier and your spouse is not so much, make the investment in their skiing ability. It’s totally worth it and doesn’t take long at all. You just need rentals, lift tickets and a little patience. (Note: I opted not to ski around with my DSLR, so here are some phone pics for your enjoyment. We endured staring straight into the sun and having our eyeballs burned for this first one. Well, I did.)

Christmas Tree #2, at the condo we rented. My mother was not about to have a Christmas without a tree, so she brought a few decorations on the road trip and we snagged this poor, semi-dried out tree and the last Christmas light net (no strings left) from the Walmart in Frisco. For us fake tree people, this was actually kind of a treat, tacky as it may have turned out.

So there you have it, the Moffatt family Christmas of 2011. I have some more fun family photos to share in the next few weeks that I’ve been waiting to post until after I gave a certain Christmas gift. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmases and have fun plans for New Year’s Eve! Audios, 2011…