christmas cards and blackjack.

Yesterday was the perfect day to take a family photo!

Lots of thanks go to my friend Laura for letting us use her photography skillz and high-tech camera to capture the annual Christmas card photo!

And, what happens when you schedule a photo day?

Something always happens.

Josh's tooth decided to jump ship that morning, leaving him minus one tooth in his wide and friendly grin!That's growing up for you. (cute?! They really do love each other.)

I laughed when I saw this picture-- a little too PG-13 for the Christmas card, but I love it so. I told Jeff to kiss me, and this is what happened!

But then, he did.

Later that evening, we dressed to impress and headed out for a night on the town.
Jeff's company had their annual Christmas party at a fancy hotel downtown, with caterers-- and beef medallions-- chicken satay skewers-- Bre cheese-- and other things you only eat at parties. I had never had a beef medallion.

.

Right before I went to get the babysitter, we:

He likes to capture large areas of ceiling in his shots.

Either that, or he decapitates you.

And again, more ceiling space.

Eventually, we made it and had our beef medallions. (not bad!)
The company gave us each $5000 play money and set us loose in the casino they had set up in the ballroom for:

And, yes it was fun! It felt a bit naughty too, as I tossed my $1000 chips onto the board for a bet.

At the end, I bet it all and lost. Oh well, easy come-- easy go.

At least I learned that:

Jeff was up by $7000 at one point, but in the end, we both left the table with $4000 total. Enough to buy 4 raffle tickets.

Needless to say, we didn't win anything-- our luck was dry that night.
But-- I did have a bunch of:

Which was my favorite part. We purposely sat next to the dance floor so we could see the weirdo's boogie after a few drinks.
We were not disappointed.

My Dr.Pepper left me quite wild for the evening. See, who needs alcohol anyway. We chair danced to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and called it an evening.
.

We also had Adrienne take a proper picture while we were all:

Two parties and two photo shoots in two days leaves me feeling a bit like Paris Hilton.