christmas in north cack & happy thoughts for my camera

hope y'all's christmas was very merry!
ours certainly was.
we had christmas eve eve at my granddaddy's house, but i forgot my camera and took no pics.

christmas eve was at my parents with my siblings and their significant others.
{on the left is me with my two bros' girlfriends & on the right are my two brothers and anj}
i have another sister too, but she and her boyfriend had to leave before the pj party started. :/

brody exhausted himself with all of the excitement of having everybody around.

but not enough to keep from begging people to throw his ball, even if he was too lazy to go get it more than once.

we had this bright idea to get a group shot with him in it, using a treat to manipulate him of course.

well, that didn't quite work out. but it made for some hilarious shots!
just check out the facial expressions of the brother in the middle!

we ate too much for every meal.

and we always have sausage balls on christmas morning and open presents while A Christmas Story plays on the tv in the background.

my brother eric made this sweet ass bank for my other brother mack after he mentioned that he really liked one similar to it.
super fun toy/money saving device.



after christmas at my parents' in the raleigh area,
we headed to anj's parents in the charlotte area,
where we once again, ate too much.
gotta love kale soup.

i got the two sweetest shirts of all time:

i am obsessed with the wagon wheel song.

yeahhhhhh, north cack!
{from santa at my parents' house. i heard she had some awesome elves helping out this year}

annnnd, the one on the right is so me. my SIL saw it, and my MIL got it for my christmas present. 

i am in love with it. however, i cannot stop obsessing over the fact that it's missing an apostrophe. what do y'all think? fabric paint? fabric marker?
i'ma doctor her up and she'll be good to go!

the FIL must have been good this year.
yep, big silas landed himself a brand new bike.
he was just like a kid. he'd ride awhile, come in and socialize, go back out and ride some more. repeat.
after all that and the kale soup and wine, he had to sneak away to get him a little nap.
look at his widdle bedroom shoes!

hubs and i arrived back home christmas night and exchanged gifts with each other.
he loves me because i pick out the most awesome books ever.
right anj?

and now, for my broken heart story.
i got the most delicious new lens for christmas, y'all!
just loooooooook at that buttery bokeh. dayum. melt my heart.
oh hey, mustard.

then Nita Nikon got some kind of illness and started to have a meltdown. she was goin' downhill with the quickness.
i almost cried over her. i use that camera just about every day.
the thought of leaving her with some stranger who surely does not love her as much as i do is killing me.

but, the good news is, i got to rock my new bean boots out in the downpour this morning to take her to the doctor.

we're lookin at around $185 {hopin' that's the upper end of the estimate} and probably four weeks until he can get to it.
but - i'd rather support a local business and have it fixed in-house by someone who's nikon trained than to have to ship it off to the scary nikon warehouse {?} in new york.
y'all please send some happy thoughts toward Nita. she is toe up.
and i feel like someone has my kidney.

happy wednesday!