a merry little christmas 2015

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This year's loot

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That black & white polka dot paper? Yeah, I screenprinted that. *flexes giant muscles*

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Pretty Livvy

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My niece Catherine's first year as official present distributor

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Tommy's mom is way more excited than Tommy is about his present

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Fact: Doodles love Christmas

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Ellie got a new toy for Christmas, which will hopefully replace the slippers she usually steals carries around the house

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My first year not waking up early enough to look presentable = the only photo you get of me

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We realized halfway through the morning that Meredith had the whole couch all to herself, covered in presents.

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A man & his Han Solo socks

There are 13 photos in this post, which are the 13 photos that we took via camera on our trip back to Southern VA for Christmas. This is in addition to the solid 4 non-selfie photos that I took on my phone. I spent most of our Christmas break with my phone left in my purse. The camera off. The out-of-office email response up. 

& it was great.

2015 was so. much. I'm only really able to see that right in the moment -- today, the last day of the year. Before I started to write this post, I went back in my previous Christmas Day posts just to revisit formatting, etc., & was instead left in tears when greeted by images of my grandparents enjoying Christmas with us the past two years. It was our first year without grandpa drinking his multiple cups of coffee & observing the Christmas morning shenanigans from a safe distance with a smile on his face. My grandmother's health is touch & go, & she spent this year unable to leave the rehab facility that she was temporarily moved to after a scary week of tests & ER visits. It's hard. It's sad.

So, we spent this Christmas being present. Soaking up moments, staying up WAY too late every night, holding onto babies & visiting my grandma every chance we got. We were missing grandpa but overjoyed to be joined by 3 month old Olivia. Happy to have a chance to catch up & laugh with Jared's parents & the siblings that made it in town for Christmas. 

Other honorable mentions: listening to the Hamilton soundtrack nonstop (OBSESSED) & seeing Star Wars for the 2nd time in Imax 3D. 

I have to get ready for work, but just wanted to pop in to put these up while it's still 2015. Happy New Years Eve to you all! I'll be back!

may your days be merry & bright

https://www.tinyprints.com/product/66829/flat_holiday_photo_cards_bright_bundle.html

Bright Bundle design by Tiny Prints

2 - times I had to lint roll those hunter green pants before our shoot

6 - photos of 120 that were acceptable options for our Christmas cards

3 - years in a row that Amelia has taken our Christmas photos

7 - tourists that we had to strategically shoot around to take the winning photo

1 - pair of ear muffs lost in the Uber on the way to the Jefferson Memorial

3 - top contenders from Tiny Prints amazing holiday card selections before agreeing on this design

37 - degrees when we took these

2 - more sleeps until the Star Wars movie premiere

365 - Days that were merry & bright with this man at my side.

We are so happy to be celebrating another beautiful Christmas season in this city, & since we cheated with our Paris photos from last year (how could you not?), we wanted to do our Christmas card photos at one of the most iconic and my personal favorite national sites, the Jefferson Memorial. A huge thank you to Tiny Prints for these beautiful cards & perfect design!

The Cards of Christmas Past:

2014

2013

2012

2011

a very bethune christmas mix | 2015

It took about an hour of enduring Spotify's ads the day after Thanksgiving before I got on my phone & paid, once again, for a month of their premium access. HERE, CHRISTMAS, JUST TAKE ALL OF MY MONEY. (Helpful hint: If you've never tried their Premium accounts, you can get three months for $.99 by clicking here. I'm not being paid to tell you that, I'm just a very seriously helpful person.)

ANYWHO. The Bethune Christmas Playlist of 2015 has arrived in all of its glory & GUYS. It's a good one. 2 hours & 35 minutes of a good one, in fact. Hopefully there's still some good songs left for next year, ha! Keep an ear out for some undercover Nickel Creek, a healthy amount of Pentatonix & NSYNC, & a sneak attack Ying Yang Twins that we deliberated very hard over before deciding that yes, it should make it through to the final round. (If Simon Cowell Complex is a thing, Jared & Kelsey Bethune have it once a year in December, for sure.) 

In other news, our Christmas tree is located no more that 4 in. from my desk & I could only be happier if we finally had a dog in our apartment this year. Baby steps. But also, get back to me when there's actually a dog in our apartment & literally no room to move.

A Very Bethune Christmas Mix | 2014

A Very Bethune Christmas Mix | 2013

a merry little christmas 2014

You may remember my lamenting in this post from last week about our first Christmas away from our families. I have a confession: All that talk was a cover. A front! A facade! The truth is that back in November, we thought making the 4 hour drive home for just Christmas Day would be exhausting, so we had decided to stick around DC. Walking into work together one morning, Christmas came up (again, which isn't an uncommon occurrence  in this Bethune household) & we agreed that living 4 hours away is a lot different than living 10 hours away, & that Christmas with our families was something we were willing to be completely exhausted for. & so, we surprised our families on Christmas. & it was delightful.

Mom & dad's lovely tree, before the kiddos all woke up/arrived.

A man & his doodle-in-law... Who creepily poses for pictures.

Awaiting the arrival of my sister & her family, the last ones to be surprised on my side

& they were surprised!

Catherine was mostly eager to show us her Etch-A-Sketch drawing.

Uncle Jared teaching Catherine how to "Push!" Tommy on his new toy... This man will be such a great papa.

Tommy, though pleased with his new toys, was much more impressed with the tree lights.

The essence of an Essmann Christmas morning

Beautiful Grandma

Catherine & her new babydoll taking a break to nap on the stairs.

Hangin' out with some red-headed babies

My niece is fascinated with my camera, so she took a few stealth photos of Poppy

Onto the Bethune home to surprise Jared's mama & see his out-of-state siblings!

Mama & Papa Bethune!

It's my NINTH year of partaking in my father-in-law's AMAZING tamales & enchiladas, 

& Christmas has been forever changed because of them.

It also just isn't a Bethune holiday celebration without Sangria Senorial.

We ventured home that evening & headed straight into work a few hours later, but our short trip was soooo worth it. It is such a treat to visit with our wonderful families, even for the shortest amount of time. Here is to next year's celebrations being just a little bit longer, & a sweet, sweet year of memories in between.

& to maybe actually taking a photo together on Christmas? That would be new.

merry christmas eve!

We are off to do really romantic holiday things... like, work... 

But that isn't keeping us from reflecting on this good news.

a date to THE tree

So, maybe these are the most touristy pictures ever. & maybe it's a bit of a selfie-overload. But it's our first Christmas in DC, so I'm pretending we're allowed. 

We bundled up on a 30 degree night, picked up some decadent chocolate inspired treats & trotted ourselves down to the National Christmas Tree. We've been here since August, but we hadn't made our way down to the White House yet, so we stopped by on our way to the tree & waved to the neighbors. *wiiiiiiiiiink* ... & then we came home to scarf down the soup we had waiting for us, ready to warm our bones.

This month has been a blur! But it's been fun to sneak in little dates around the city & make our way through our pile of Christmas movies whenever we get the chance. December, you always slide by way too fast, but still... This has been one for the books.