a dreary world transformed to one of dazz'ling white

sandpoint always has the best snow.

love,
r&y

i know someone in my family would totally do this...

ten points for me...

just so you know, the girlie girls LOVED their photo albums.

love,
auntie holly

christmas day is in our grasp so long as we have hands to clasp.

i love coming around the corner and finding the scene of christmas morning. i love that it is magical, even now. i love watching others open their presents and the mess of wrapping paper on the floor. and i must admit that i love opening presents and finding that i got something i never knew i always wanted. it was a christmas miracle that santa found us in sandpoint (we were spoiled), and another that tyler had a present when his never came in the mail like it was supposed to... and mari just couldn't accept that gramma's present to her was for her doll, and not a bed for mari...

i almost forgot to open my own presents.

christmas day will always be just as long as we have we.

love,
r&y

 

"it's the christmas holly bear!"

at christmas, all roads lead home.

marjorie holmes

it was a sandpoint christmas this year. and there should be a rule that there must always be at least one person younger than twelve years old or smaller than four feet at every christmas. it is just more fun. and way more christmasy. 

tree decorating, a miniature nativity with angels and donkeys, plank contests on christmas eve, and launching potatoes with a ty's cannon.

love,
r&y

(this is our favourite missionary's band back at home. and we love them, too. his little brother is the drummer.)

Z Rizdvom Khrystovym! Kurisumasu Omedeto! Merry Chirstmas!

we ate around the world at tyler's parents house this christmas. ukranian kutya. ethiopian injera. mexican enchiladas. every night a different culture. we were never hungry and always full. it was glorious.

when we weren't eating, we were climbing mountains to find the perfect tree (which ended up being the perfect tree someone else had cut down and left behind...), racing down the hill in the backyard, building pizza ovens, watching movies, playing beatles rockband, monitoring the eclipse, and listening to urabamba. 

sleep is highly overrated...

can't wait to do it again. and again.

 

baby, we've always got next year...



this year, it was quite possibly the best. christmas. ever. we were filled with food, presents, memories, sleep, and energy to last us for the remaining few months we will be out here. and everything on our to do list was easily forgotten (we've always got next year...).

and we took about 12 rolls of film. so for me (and you), christmas will last another month or so!

this is charlie, my gold dress, and GQ tyler after church at our cabin in idaho. there are too few times you get to wear gold, sparkly dresses, and christmas time is one of them. one of many reasons i love that season.

love,

r&y

ps. these pictures were taken with my christmas present, a mamiya m645