Mi familia.

Meet my family.  My familia.  My people.  My loves.

Mom surprised us with the "we're going to take our Christmas card photo tonight!" a few minutes before we were set to begin.  Hair was not done.  Lipstick was not applied.  Clothes were not color coordinated (hence the black and white).

We annually spend at least an hour arguing about what color we should wear in the family pictures.  But not this year.  The spontaneous nature of this photo robbed us of this joy.

I know you've met most of my family before...but it's only once a year that we actually are willing to go through the pain of acquiring a photo like this.


It took us forty five minutes to figure out how to use Mom's point-and-shoot camera for this.  True story.

From left to right:  

My Dad, Shawn.  He is, obviously, the largest in our family.  Hence, being put in the back row.  

Below him is my niece Denae, and I'm really uncertain why her face looks like someone just ran over her dog.  Would it kill a girl to smile?

Next to Denae is my sister Tye and brother-in-law Ty.  I'm not sure why Ty is sitting down - he is the only one?  It kind of looks like his head was photoshopped in.  He is also not smiling. 

Above the Ty(e)s is my Mom.  She is perky and pretty as ever!  Though I know she hates her hair in this picture.  Don't scroll back up and look at it now...she'll be self-conscious.

Oh, and who's next to Mom, you ask?  It's your's truly, my friends!  Georgia was very enthusiastic about this picture.  I love it!  And no, I did not adopt a two year old toe-head, though that would be quite fun!

That little rascal I'm holding belongs to brother-in-law Brandon and my sister Brynn, who are standing next to me.  They have three rascals in total: Denae (someone-ran-over-my-dog-face), Kyson, and Brooks.  They are blond and adorable.  Sometimes, I love being Scandinavian.

So there you have it - the whole Larson/Goodrich/Elliott/Knouf household.  Over the years we've gone from having five stockings over the fireplace...to having twelve. 

Now that's something to be thankful for.