pre-christmas weekend festivities

i know everyone is on a "blog break" this weekend, but i can't imagine how long a five day weekend recap would be, so i'm splitting mine up. our weekend started off with our annual get together with my best friend, kelli's family on friday night. most of you know, our families have done a christmas get together every year since kelli and i were little. i do not remember a time before they were in my life, which i think is awesome. our parents trade off hosting, and this year was viv and dennis' turn. they made delicious spaghetti, and we all exchanged gifts and hung out for the evening. 

 kelli and azalea...i love watching these two together

azalea sweet-talking grandma into giving her food off her plate ;) 

modeling new jammies (and shoes!) and reading with grandpa

what kind of christmas party would it be if we didn't have a dance off? 

saturday we didn't have anything on the calendar, so we headed to uptown for a little bit in the morning. behold, our new favorite azalea picture: 

we both see a bit of future "teenage azalea" in it :)

we had a semi-spontaneous lunch at pizza luce with our friends becky, jeromy, and linnea, in part to take advantage of a free large pizza thatcher won on facebook. we were brave and took the girls close to nap time, but everyone survived. in the afternoon, we went to visit my grandma who is in rehab at the nursing home, following a stay in the hospital for an infection. luckily the nursing home is right next door to her condo, where we will be getting together christmas day. we ended the day with a visit from our friend/neighbor dannie and a movie night. 

sunday my mom and i went to church. we were signed up for treat/communion prep and clean up again. in the evening, we joined 2 of my aunts and 4 cousins (including my atlanta fam) downtown for the hollidazzle parade. we hadn't gone for a few years, and i was excited to take azalea. she had a hard time with waiting for it to start, but seemed to enjoy it. it was pretty cold out, so we ended up leaving before it was done. everyone came back to our house for hot chocolate afterwards. 

blurry family pic on the nicollet mall