Christmas 2011

What a fun Christmas weekend we had! This year the holiday was on the weekend so the husband didn't have to work! {he has to work the holidays unless they happen to fall on a weekend} Friday Rachel and I went out to do some last minute shopping and get food for our festivities, it was crazy out there! It felt like Black Friday!

The shelves at the Dollar Tree on Friday. Crazy!

I got everything I needed, got home and did some baking and got everything ready for the weekend. Saturday was Christmas Eve, we woke up earlier than normal, got some coffee and headed to my brothers house to give the kids their presents. When we got there he handed me a cowboy hat that my dad had worn all the time and some china that he had in his china cabinet. This meant SO much to me. I had always wanted his cowboy hat and the china he gave me is all I have left from the china cabinet because my sister threw it all out when she moved out of his house. {can you tell I am still a little really bitter about that?} I had the biggest smile on my face when I came home and displayed the china :) We stayed for about an hour, ate some fresh baked cookies and opened presents. Then we headed to Mom's house.

When we got to Mom's you could smell the turkey before you even opened the front door. We walked into her house and it felt so cozy! This is the first time since I moved that I had felt like I was "home" again. We unloaded the car, slipped into our Christmas pajamas and opened presents. It was just like Christmas morning!

Mom still puts "Baby" on my presents. Cute :)

I got some new sheets, gift cards and stuff from Bath and Body Works {my favorite store!}. We finished up the Christmas dinner and sat at the table and ate until we couldn't stomach any more food. We sat down to watch a movie and let our food digest, the new Planet of the Apes movie, it was reallllllly good! Then we played some board games, Mom gets a little out of control while playing Apples to Apples, she makes sure to rub it in your face when she has more cards than you. And who knew that one of Santa's reindeer's is NOT called Nixon?? I was baffled to hear this news. Guess I need to brush up on my reindeer names *hits hand on forehead*. We gorged ourselves on dessert, packed up the car and made our way back home. I use to spend every Christmas Eve with my dad, towards the end of his life my mom started joining us. When he passed Mom and I had said we would always spend Christmas Eve together. Last year we did not due to all the family drama. I am so happy we started back our tradition of spending Christmas Eve together, I think we had a really good time and I cannot wait to do it again next year.

Christmas morning the husband woke me up in a hurry, he was like a little kid! I barely had my eyes open before we were downstairs sitting around the tree. We finished out advent calendar, a ten dollar Starbucks card was in the last box! We sat around the tree and opened our presents. Watching the smile on his face melted my heart. The cats on the other hand, could care less about their presents! I got everything on my list, I sure am spoiled. We cleaned up and then made an amazing breakfast! Ben played a new video game that he had gotten while I did some stuff around the house and read a book. We then made some snacks and watched Polar Express. That is my absolute favorite Christmas movie! We finished the night with the classic...National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...and our new Christmas tradition, the GIGANTIC cup of hot chocolate! We barely finished it, but it was really good and warmed our bellies!

That is a penny next to the cup so you can see how big it was! The cup was about the size of my head, and the candy cane was about one foot long and two inches round. GIGANTIC!

It was really nice to have Christmas just the two of us {oh and the cats too!} starting new family traditions for us in our home means more to me than anything else in this world. At times I caught myself being sad that I did not get to see or hear from the boys, but I didn't let that consume me, I realize that they are adults and are old enough to make the decision to see us or not. I will no longer put guilt upon myself over this issue, does me no good. I had a great Christmas, it has been a long time since I have enjoyed myself on this holiday. Can't wait to see what next year brings us :)