We also took the oppourtunity to caputre a quick extended family photo shoot since the whole gang was present, which is a rare occurrence! It was quite a task with so many restless little ones invloved! But we succeeded!!
The winning shot of the whole crew
"Big Kid Cousins"
Attempting to invlove Kash
Settled on this :)
The best one of all Pintler Boys
The "next best one" :)
Pintler Fam Fall Photo!
Candid moments from the day..........
This one cracks me up
They made these bows out of sticks found outside. So cute. I love how much Kason adores Kora.
And always has:)
The cooks!
(Some of them)
The week after Thanksgiving, Nick had his ankle surgery, which was when things all went downhill as far as 'being in control of it all' is concerned. I was a bit naive and wasn't realizing how much of an impact this would have on the holiday season!! I of course took the initial recovery into consideration, and had that all planned and 'scheduled' out. But what I didn't plan for was the fact that Nick would be unable to walk well for the next 4-6 weeks. When you have Christmas shopping and festivities on the calendar, that presents a bit of an issue. Even seeing Santa was a major ordeal! But nonetheless, we survived and have many wonderful memories of Christmas 2012!!
We were smart enough to put the tree up and get lights on prior to surgery. Thank heaven! Otherwise, it might not have happened at all!!
Yes, we have a fake tree. Something I SWORE I would never have. Yet, it was the best move ever! No pine needles, no watering, perfect height and shape (which was an issue every year, I would need the perfect tree, Nick had more 'vision' and could see past imperfections. Always ended in an argument! Crisis now adverted...) Love my fake tree. And smelly candles to go with it of course.
Surgery Day!!
Post surgery.... After Decorating the tree
He's totally hammin up the sad face
At Grandmas for the annual cousin sleepover and gift exchange!!!
And then the whole gang with their new Christmas jammies!!
Pintler Posse
Visiting Santa
Included these to document the chaos. Kash running wild, nick unable to keep up. It was comical. I even had trouble keeping up, and I have two good feet!!
Funny tidbit....We had originally planned on making a big ordeal of Santa by going all the way downtown Spokane and eating at Rocky Rococos (one of our faves!) As time went on, and the holiday chaos ensued, I decided to take it a little easier, go to Valley mall for Santa and do red robin for dinner. Once the day finally came, we ended up settling for Silverlake mall and cafe rio. This is just a small example of my high expectations versus reality:)
Christmas Eve
White Elephant Gift Exchange time at the Gardners!
Had to include a pic of the coveted carmels from the gift exchange! You would have thought they were made of gold or something!!
And Christmas Eve, before bed.....after Santas cookies and reindeer snacks were ready of course...
One of my fave pics...ever....
Santas work:)
The year ended in slight chaos, but we were ready to welcome 2013!!