december daily in photos: december 18 – barely 25

[day 18]

[day 19]

playing in the leaves.

the same leaves that aren’t on this tree anymore.

look, it’s a picture of an outfit, or at least part of any outfit. i enjoyed my chunky sweater and snowflake ring.

received a lovely and tasty gift from a friend. mmmmm, see’s toffee-ettes. literally my fave.

mr. marshall on the iPhone and snuggling with dad. awww.

[day 20]

gibson finally gets to wrap the gifts he picked out for dad, marshall and albert (his hamster)

[day 21]

rough final day at work. preparing for a 5 day break when it’s the busiest time of year in the office and you have no service rep to help because they just up and went to lunch and didn’t come back and i’ve got an all day meeting over an hour away and i’ve been at work since 6 and got home at 6 and i need this break so bad. oh boy…did i saw that out loud?

well, that felt good. carry on.

[day 22]

my gram is dying. there, i said it. her heart is failing and there’s no treatment. nature will take its course as she stops the band-aid treatments tomorrow.

today i went to see her at the hospital and stopped by her house to meet with my parents and my uncle to discuss plans. i took the liberty to snap some shots of things that are staples in my gram’s house. things that haven’t moved in a couple decades. things i will miss.

this is her 8-track/tape player/radio. in the tape slot is a cassette labeled Big Band. i wish we could listen to this together. i wish she knew how much i love this music. the music of her era.

on my way home from gram’s. i’m rockin’ my red and gray plaid hat and my coca-cola shirt.

my drive home was straight into the sun. but the sky was clear so i snapped while driving. shhhh, don’t tell anyone.

[day 23]

brrrr. there has been no cloud cover and the temps dropped like crazy. this is california and we aren’t used to the cold. the frost was thick on the grass and our outdoor table. a little stick helped me carve into the ice.

it’s baking day. and mike came to visit so i needed something to send him home with. i made brownies (for santa) and granola.

it’s cutie time. love these little guys.

gibson stirred the brownies and let me take his picture. how the heck did i get so lucky?

2 days before christmas and the traffic in our little town is nuts.

poor gibby got a molar yanked today. it was tough but he tougher. when he got home marshall called him ‘toothless gibby’. then i died of laughter.

[day 24]

it’s christmas  eve…FINALLY! i went back up to see gram and had to rush home so that when marsh woke up from his nap we could start the fest-eve-ities. yep, the grays started a new tradition this year. we have always let them open one gift on christmas eve, usually jammies and a toy. but this year i thought how cool it would be to watch our christmas footage from last year, then open the gifts. matt put together a quick dvd of our stuff from last year and although marsh was a but anxious, we all really liked watching it. so a tradition has been born, which also means that matt is required to work every christmas (as he put it). sorry babe, but you’re the man with the camera.

after dinner and baths we jumped in the car to drive around town and look at lights. there were so many pretty ones but this was my favorite of them all. happy birthday to Jesus! got the kids in bed and had to put marshall back to sleep 3 times because he was hoping to see santa. sorry kid.

brownies and red christmas (almond) milk were eaten devoured.

all was calm. all was bright.

[day 25]

gibson came to my bedside and exclaimed “wake up mom, it’s christmas!”
after not sleeping very good myself i glanced at the clock. “it’s 4am gibson.”
“oh i am soooo sorry mom. i’ll go back to bed!”

that kid…cracks me up.

so we’re up at 5:30. matt’s had coffee, i’ve had apple cider. and now we’re the ones waiting for the kids to wake up. the one day they don’t wake up before 6:30? what are the odds?  marsh finally strolls into the family room at 6:45, unsure of what day it is. “oh yeah, it’s christmas morning!” he finally remembers. then he runs down the hall to wake up gibson.

i can’t even wait to tell you about our actual christmas day…but i have to save it for another day!

hope everyone had a super great christmas…talk soon!