Hi friends! Long time, no blog, am I right? Haw Haw Haw. Here I am in my Holiday Dress of 2015, which I randomly found at Fred Myers whilst out buying dog beds, for a whopping 27 dollars. It would look 100% vintage if not for the exposed rose gold zipper in the back. It is very cute, and very forgiving, and thank God for that, because I gained even MORE weight at Josh’s parents’ house. Of course.

Anywhoo enough about my propensity towards morbid obesity; here’s Ronia holding a baby at her family’s holiday party last week. Cuties.

The Holkins’ fancy crystal light-up tree topper. Oooooh, ahhhhh.

Current project. The red has been outlined in gold, and now I’m at the point where I’m thinking what’s next? Are we finished?

At work, two days before my Christmas vacation. Thank God for dresses and skirts, otherwise I don’t know what the hell I’d pack my bod into. Scrubs? I do have some scrubs.

10 years together and our Christmas tree is finally balanced between the ski ornaments and the glittery ornaments.

We were supposed to leave Christmas Eve morning, but both passes were closed due to extreme snow, so we didn’t end up leaving for Spokane until Christmas day. That’s right, we spent 6+ hours of our Christmas day on the road. Boo hoo!

Luckily for us, Josh has lots of family near Seattle, so we spent Christmas Eve with his mother’s side of the family, eating delicious lasagna and participating in the white elephant gift exchange. I brought a heated throw that I had hoped I would end up keeping for myself (WRONG). I ended up getting a travesty of an “art” piece: a board haphazardly slopped over with metallic paint and a piece of lace attached. It was SO BAD, it wasn’t even worth keeping for kitsch value. I actually just left it over at his grandma’s place since she donates stuff frequently. Sigh.

On the way home from his grandmother’s house I spotted the infamous leg lamp from “A Christmas Story”! Woo hoo! It’s my personal tradition to watch that movie every year, and I made it through about 1/3rd this year.

Before spending Christmas day cooped up in the car with a couple of panting dogs we did open presents, just the two of us. I received this cool watermelon tourmaline ring from Mumsie. It had caught my eye during my last trip to Boise at “Eyes of the World” and she remembered! What a sweet mom.

The drive to Spokane is really mind-numbingly boring. It’s best to have a book on tape to listen to, or some really good music. We didn’t have either on the trip there, but we stopped at Barnes and Noble on the way home for a book on tape, a Jim Gaffigan book. Unfortunately the entire book is about his kids…his FIVE kids. What a breeder!

See? Boring.

Future rock star/multimedia artist Ronia got the COOLEST headphones for Christmas.

Bear Cub got a hedgehog chew toy, which Maggie promptly claimed for her own.

Ronia also got this rad guitar, with matching rock star outfit. Her mother made the vest out of an IKEA throw pillow!

Can you imagine receiving a gift this cool at age 6? Hell, I’m ancient and I still want it, and I don’t even play guitar!

Ronia also received this “Crazy Cat Lady” action figure. I think we all know who I need to buy this for!

Fleeta’s weird and wacky salt and pepper shaker collection. I took some old books off her hands. She’s working on our wedding quilt right now–it’s going to be lovely.

I put on ye Olde Holiday Dress a third time on the day after Christmas for Josh’s grandmother’s 90th birthday bash. 40 people turned up!

You can’t tell, but the cake was covered with edible glitter. There was so much food. SO MUCH.

Grandma Frances surrounded by her grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Jessie came in drag, which I thought was fabbuu. Vintage Chanel!

Frances at 17, and 90. Her mind is still very sharp.

Ohhhh there was a lot of snow in Spokane. Sometimes I’ll go play with the dogs outside for a bit, but I didn’t bother this time. No interest!

These guys romped a little outside, while I watched from the warm enclosed safety of the all-season porch.

Josh was just telling me that I’m Garfield (because of my love of naps and lasagna, I guess) and what do I find? An old Garfield book. I didn’t like this passage, though: “You are what you eat, so avoid fruit and nuts“. Just a smidge homophobic, eh Garfield? He is also AWFUL to Odie, I’m not that mean to my dogs, come on.

Snow Cub.

Happy to be leaving you, snow! Tee hee!

This dude had planned on skiing in Spokane, but didn’t get around to it. He had the day off from work today (not on purpose), so he’s out skiing right now.

No thanks.

One of my Christmas presents from Josh: a “Tree of Life” replica, a’la Tiffany. It looks real nice in the window.

I know Josh was bummed that we didn’t get to spend Christmas Eve in Spokane, but I thought it was kind of neat that we got to spend time with both sides of his family this year. Also, it was our first Christmas morning with just the two of us! Kind of romantic.