thursday night. and lots of life.

 all but the top right corner dress is from blue velvet vintage.

i started writing this friday. christmas eve eve, as some would call it.
but . . . i haven't posted it because hardly anything is written. i was waiting for even a slightly witty time of writing to come by so you wouldn't just be reading shortcut, obvious explanations of a line up of pictures.
ahem.

so i'll try to fill in some blanks and all that with this mug of egg nog coffee by my side. what a lovely christmas eve.

as i was starting to write in the latest link love post, the reason why i want it, is because last night i went swing dancing for the first time in too long. i forgot how fun it is. how much i love the music. and the twirling. and the funny old men with awesome old fashioned shoes.

which reminds me. my beloved sister, anna, was just telling me that, apparently, now that i have a boyfriend, all i ever post is link love anymore. "when are you going to blog about swing dancing? your poor blog people who follow you, you never post anymore!" she told me.
ah.
so.

 top picture, left to right: my sister anna, kelly, martha & stuart, 

catfish [aka richard] & lauren, nancy, anna.

we went for dinner at sven's cafe.
i ordered a melty artichoke panini. and a cappuccino.

it arrived.
and i was surprised; my first cappuccino art ever. strange, i know. but i've never asked for it before, nor have i been to a place that just gives you a beautiful masterpiece by default. sigh.
it kind of made my night. :)
and everyone who noticed sighed and shook their head over my excited nerding-out over my cappuccino, with nikon in hand. 

:)

you've never heard it said or thought that i've ever been obsessed with coffee, right?
well, i have news for you . . .

anna loved mine so much, she wanted coffee after she finished dinner, so she ordered herself a cappuccino. she got a lovely flower. :)

 martha, me, anna, my sister anna, nancy, lauren.

us ladies. catfish was kind enough to put up with my nikon and take some for us. [he likes sony, i guess. :P]

thank you, catfish, for that great face. :) 
before-dancing group picture. :) everyone else was out on the floor with the lesson.
like stuart. that's why he's not in this shot with us.
now for some dancing . . . a grabbed a few pictures after i danced a song or two.

funny thing . . . whenever i get a chance to capture anna dancing . . . it always happens to be her least favorite dance partner. el oh el. not pictured here.

me and little zechariah, sarah and justin's little guy. :)

. . . me and my dear younger sister, rach. :)

reese. being a funny little dude. licking the window of the cold front door while we waited for his daddy to come pick him up.

rach and me, sometime this past week. smoking pretzels.

rach and me. once again. she instagram'd it. lol. doesn't everyone these days???

sunday morning. me and zechariah. kisses in the kitchen. :)
he was a tired little guy. :)

see? this was not 15 minutes later. :)
out like a light in rach's arms.

in other news, this week i have been consulting pioneer woman's site for new recipes to make for dinner. more on that some other time, probably.
in short, snapping out of a bored culinary spell brings good things to the kitchen table. ;)
i'm off to get into some dressy clothes and proceed to join the huge gathering of dad's side of the family at grandma t's for an indian food themed night . . . so, happy christmas eve and day to you! ♥
if this isn't an update on my life, i don't know what is.