Key Family Christmas

(This is just the cousins...)

Every year, the extended Key Family (about 40 people total) gets together in small-town east Texas for a BIG lunch/dinner, Chinese gift exchange, four-wheeler rides, rifle shooting.... and more eating. But mostly, it's a day full of smiles, joy, and laughter. Lots of laughter. Big, billowing, laughter.

 Scott's friend from architecture school, Jun, came with us!

The Chinese gift exchange is always a riot, and the source of most of the laughter, as we relentlessly steal each other's gifts, scheme with our spouses to ensure that we get the gift we want, and open the one gift that no one is really sure that they want (this year it was a coin bank in the shape of a man's naked bum with his pants pulled down.... you can probably imagine where the coins were inserted.... and I will spare you the detail that when the coins are inserted, the coin bank farts....)

 Yes, that would be a tool for castrating cows. Oh... Chinese gift exchange...

The above mentioned coin bank.

Castrating tools and farting coin banks,

HK

Johnson Family | 12.11.2011

Michelle and I suffered through went to graduate school in speech-language pathology together over the last two years, sweating before major tests and fighting to keep our eyes open during night class! She is a beautiful and proud mother of 6 incredibly fun and sweet children that I had heard bits and pieces about during that time. When she contacted me about taking photos of her family, I could not have been more thrilled!

It was an exciting challenge to photograph 6 kids at once, trying to capture that brief second when all were looking at the camera, smiling, and eyes open! I definitely had to squeeze in a few seconds of "silly" shots to keep them interested, but I think that stilling those bits of raw spontaneity captured some of the more real moments of sibling-hood (and happen to be some of my favorite shots of the day!) :)

 

Big blue sky,

HK

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a little different for us this year. We drove to Belton in two separate cars because Scott has his final, muy importante (very important) project due tomorrow (Monday), which meant that he was only able to spend Thanksgiving day and part of Friday with us. Poor love spent all of Thursday attached to his computer, completing various things that I have yet to fully understand (renderings, drawings, Rhino, vectors, floor plans, section views, explosions.... a whole new vocabulary!)

At the Keys

At the Huddlestons

We spent Thanksgiving Day with Scott's family :) We had a nice, relaxing day preparing food and watching football. I am going to take a moment and feel sorry for myself, as I watched the A&M vs. UT game in a house full of UT fans... I almost had bragging rights... ALMOST. Ugh.

We headed out to my parents house on Friday morning so that we could take the 20-something annual Huddleston Family Christmas Card Picture. I put this in all caps as this event has historically been one of the most stressful, exhausting, cry-inducing  highlighted events in our year; certainly worthy of a title. Thankfully, as we have gotten older and more "mature", it is not nearly as painful of a process. Here is a sneak peak:

I stuck around through Sunday playing 90-minute games of Settlers of Catan with my family (I still can't win the silly game!), helping Momma in the kitchen, and watching movies. 

My daddy and His Hair (also worthy of a title).

I am so thankful for the smiles, laughs, and stories that we shared this Thanksgiving.


Still stuffed,


HK