Totes Awes. Christmas Vacay!

See, I managed to cram about 14 annoying phrases in one title!   It wouldn't be Christmas vacation without us Vaughans hitting on an obnoxious phrase to overuse for the week, and this week it was "totes adorb."  Livie mentioned in passing that she had seen someone comment on a Flickr photo with the phrase "totes adorb" instead of taking the time to type out the phrase "totally adorable."  She unwisely said something about "It just really annoys me."  Well, way to wave a red flag to gathered siblings!  We promptly worked "totes adorb" into every conversation, along with its cousins, "totes awes", "totes ridic" and "totes yum".  Bethaney, who was not there for the original conversation, added fuel to the fire the next day by telling us how stupid it sounded.  The sad part is, it's getting to the point where I find it hard to say the word "totally" even when I'm not trying to be all ironically funny.

This is going to be the most pathetic collection of pictures for a Christmas vacation, ever.  I got so used to Livie being camera-hungry and stealing my camera to take lots of pictures, I got out of the habit of taking many pictures.  But now that Olivia is all big and important with her new camera, my poor camera was neglected.  I took 30+ pictures the whole nine days we were up at Vaughan's.

 Cheyenne was still obsessed with cats.  This is her, Christmas morning, freezing her little tushie in the 12 ° weather to go cuddle the cat.  Cheyenne went outside every moment she could, to help feed cows or tag along with Owen and Ashley to the barn.  Quite the dedication for a little skinny minnie who can't stay warm for more than five minutes!

 Evan, serenading us.

 Cody and Evan decided we needed biscuits for lunch on Sunday.  Cody's buddy Anthony had made biscuits the last time he was there, and he left the recipe, so the guys decided to tackle it.

 Evan, self-sacrificingly tasting the dough.  They were stinkin' awesome biscuits.  The triple recipe disappeared in a heartbeat.

 A gaggle of people on the couch.  The kids were finding Livie's $5 webcam to be the funniest thing ever, since you could stick your tongue out at it, and there it would be on the computer screen.  Tee-hee.

 Then, for supper Christmas night, we had hamburgers with 60 minute rolls, and homemade French fries.

 Justin was the deep-frying MO-sheen, with two fryers going.  They didn't last about 30 seconds after he dumped them out and salted them.  Totes yum!  Right at the end, he made some potato chips that were deeply delectable, too.

 Monsieur Gilbert, in his big boy Carrharts.

 Olivia, modeling the fascinator Ashley made for her.  Très elegant!

 Dad decided to make pancakes one morning when all the cousins slept over.  Sticky chaos!

 Rilla's super-cool Aunt Ashley hairdo!  It lasted for longer than I should probably tell you.  It was a bit linty by the time I undid it to wash it.

 Cheerful Lincoln, despite the fact he had kept me up half the night with his cough and cold and general malaise.

 Rilla, exhibiting symptoms (i.e., snot), of the same cold.  I think every kid got it eventually.  It's pretty inevitable when there's that many people in close proximity for that long.  At least we didn't get the stomach flu this year.

 This picture is terribly blurry, which is tragic because it is utterly gorgeous.  I don't know why my camera is taking such blurry pictures lately, I don't know if I have lost all brains when it comes to taking pictures, or if there is something wrong with my camera.  If anyone would like to forward me $800, I will purchase a new camera to explore the alternatives.

 Cheesy grinned Orianna!

 Lily, all festive in her snowman jammies.

 Glasses dude.  I still think they are adorable.

 Cheyenne, looking all paparazzi-averse and teenagerish.

 Lincoln trying on Daddy's boots.

 He's got a little ways to go to fill those shoes.

 This is Cody's new truck, which caused an involuntary squeal of "Totes Adorb!!" when it was pulled in the driveway.  It's an old military truck, but it makes me go "Awww..."

 Evan couldn't spend the whole week up there, but when he was there, he was playing with the sugar shack.  Here it is, all sided with board and batten siding.  Again, totes adorb!

 And, my little traveling companions, on the way home New Year's Day.  Despite the fact she blithely sailed through the week with late bedtimes and a paucity of naps, this little monkey NEVER fell asleep the entire ride home!

This little tired bunny conked out within three miles, but he woke up again all too soon.  Alas.

So that's the extent of the photos.  Pretty lame.  I missed documenting the White grandparents coming up for a few days, and the influx of David and Rachel and their kids, and the general wonderfulness that the week was.  We played lots of progressive rummy, and even an entire game of garbage with Mom on one of her few days off.  Towards the end of the vacation, we got into a hearts craze, where I proceeded to shoot the moon.  Twice in one game, New Year's Eve.  Not to brag, or anything.  We ate lots of yummy mint cookies that Ashley made, and a couple batches of biscuits, and turkey, and ham, and spaghetti, and... it was a lot of food, which made sense because there was a lot of people there.  Not quite as many people as there was there last year, sniff, sniff (we missed you, AK and OR Vaughans!).  The cousins spent a lot of time saying " 'Tend I'm the mommy, and you're the little baby," or " 'Tend I'm the panther, and you're all scared," (that one is courtesy of Little House on the Prairie), or " 'Tend I'm the ROBBER!".  There was lots of 'tending.  Lincoln and Gilbert alternated bonking each other on the head with long, sincere hugs.  I missed Evan desperately when he had to come home to work for a few days, and we all missed Lindsey, who had to attend to stupid medical issues before the year was out (and the deductible had to be met again) instead of coming home as planned.  Several of the family went to Vermont to attend the wedding of the lovely Cristin McMillan, and those of us left at home felt weird in the semi-quiet house (well, as quiet as it could be with 7 kids.  But it did lack Livie, so a reduction in volume, overall), and waited anxiously for the pictures and reports from the wedding weekend.  Evan and Justin played with the new tractor, and dreamed sugaring dreams.  All in all, 'twas wonderful.  And now we're home, and the kids still have colds and are fussy, but it's nice to be in our little nest again.  Occasionally, it even snows and gets cold enough to remind us that it is winter!  Looking forward to the rest of January!