xmas eve ▲ a belated recap

Alternate title for this post?

Lairen Takes Hundreds Of Pictures And Makes You Look At Them

But this is the beauty of being a blogger: your blog is your kingdom and your will be done.

And my will is to inundate you with roughly 100 photos from Christmas Eve in Portland, Oregon. 

(because when you bite the bullet and pay for a photo storage upgrade with Google you can bet your sweet bippy it's gonna get used)

Thus, my first Camaraderie Christmas shall be forever (or at least until the internet explodes) immortalized here, where the only downside is:

  ➤ you can't taste how good Dean's venison tenderloin was

➤ you can't hear Jared laughing until he was rolling on the floor

➤ you missed Maggie's mom's reaction to the faces she made in every photo

➤ you didn't get to try the tamales Frankie & Matty made and,

➤ you weren't there to raise your hand in agreement when we polled the room as to whether or not Shamoo should take his shirt off

So if you'd like to take a peek into the madness...

rye whiskey - the traditional libation of christmas eve

black pepper chocolate rosemary cookies - recipe coming soon!

so sorry rudolph... you were delicious 

dean in a venison-induced stupor 

I made scotch eggs too... another recipe to follow soon!

pretending we're bad - things that should have been fried but were baked instead  (risotto balls, scotch eggs & mashed potato cakes)

I'm just really happy I caught Shamoo making this face

what? your butcher doesn't carry a crockpot around with him wherever he goes? weird. 

brotherhood at its finest 

you guys ruin everything

michull's indiana specialty - dill pickles, cream cheese & ham (looks disgusting, tastes amazing)

dean's advertising face - eat your heart out don draper

these are just four of the best guys I know - and these pictures make me giggle to no end 

hi, we're here to ruin this joyous holiday for you all

so fun story: the ponyhawk was the name of a hairstyle dean was sporting around this time last year. it was a mohawk that grew out of control until it was long enough to pull into a ponytail and while we all found it somewhat offensive,  dean figured it was a shame michull & maggie weren't there to admire it (they were still living in boston at the time). so to remedy the situation, dean shaved it off, put it in a bag, threw it first into my lap thus ruining the eveing of 11/22/11 for me, then put it in a box and mailed it to massachusetts. a year later, this is all dean got from mike for christmas. aaaand scene!

because no one on the planet eats more cereal than this guy and michull & maggie know it...

...and because if he doesn't get a great dane soon we will all stop being his friend.

she liked my present 

and OH HEY, congratulations are in order for these two who got engaged on NYE!!!

"bee-boop on the nose"

maggie and her momma

dear matty & frankie: thank you for being mexican and making tamales

modeling his new sweatshirt from matty & frankie

it's fun making dean the uncomfortable one for once

this classy moment brought to you by jim beam and an apparent lack of rocks glasses 

GREMLINS! a christmas eve tradition 

he's my favorite laugher ever

this awkward moment brought to you by being in the right place at the right time

dunno... i think he was trying to kill him or something

oh right, remember how i said we made shamoo take his shirt off? we just wanted to ogle the muscles. he's such an obliging boy.

"aw, look at the treeee!"

doing the "dumb ways to die" dance 

we basically just decided to stop using glasses altogether once the dishes started piling up toward the ceiling  

I love it when shamoo laughs that hard

husbands (getting married legally in washington in less than two weeks! yay for equality!)

Yeah.

I love these crazy kids.

I think I'll keep 'em.