caitlin elizabeth photography :): footied pajamas and the polar express [christmas 2011]

when my sister and i were little (like: look cute in footied pajamas and pigtails little) we would always stay up to try and see if we could hear santa's sleigh bells. we could hardly fall asleep christmas eve and were then up wayyyy too early the next morning to see if the jolly old man in the big red suit had eaten all of his cookies. one year (i think i was in 1st grade, because that was the year that we had an awful ice storm, the power was knocked out, and i got to read the christmas story from Luke by lantern light on christmas eve) mama and daddy told us it HAD to be light outside before we could get out of bed... torture, i tell you. i distinctly remember kristen sitting on my lap at the top of the stairs waiting to hear mama and daddy stir below so we could bound down the stairs. when danny was born, he use to sleep with me. but then, when i went off to college he only slept with me when i came home for the weekends, and eventually hardly at all. but still, every christmas eve night, he would grab rusty (his bear) and i would get hippo (my hippopotamus) and we would read the polar express under the covers and then fall asleep waiting for santa to visit.

this year, there were no footied pajamas, no polar express read with enthusiasm and different voices for each character, no snuggling with a freckled red-head and my hippo. instead, on christmas eve, i crawled into bed alone and set an alarm. at 5:25 a.m. on christmas morning my phone blared some nondescript piano rift and i leaped out of bed. i threw on my muck shoes, fed gambler (the horse) and the cats (sissy and grayson) and put shep in the back of HOSS. i drove the 20 miles home and pulled into the front yard at 6:03 a.m.

that's right, 6:03 a.m.

and i wouldn't have it any other way. somehow i managed to get there before danny/kristen woke up and christmas morning was just as exciting as the 20-some before. i'm excited for what christmas futures have to bring, put christmas present was pretty awesome (i guess it's christmas past now, but you get my drift).

i have some goodies coming to the blog soon (christmas presents were delivered, so now i can share goodies with ya'll!!), but until then, enjoy some of the photos from christmas 2011.