Our First Christmas

This year was a little different than I imagined.

I always pictured our first Christmas to be my husband and myself laying on the floor under the Christmas tree, staring up at all the lights. He and I, me and him. US.

However, this year brought us a surprise! We had the wonderful opportunity to have our dear friend, Paul stay with us for Christmas day. Due to work, he was not able to make it to his family in Boise.

It was just Mike and I for Christmas Eve, which I loved having that time with him to start our own traditions as a family.

Mike was working during the day, so I decided that I would suprise him with a Christmas Eve feast! If any of you know me, I am not one for cooking. I googled, called my mom and searched for some feasting ideas.

The final menu was:

rice

vegatables

DR PEPPER ham

oreo pie

rolls

crackers

and sparkling cider

I will have to say, I can make a mean ham!

After dinner, we snuggled on the couch to the movie "elf".

Then, we read the story of our Savior's birth and watched the Christmas devotional (A tradition that I hope to do every year).

and off to bed we went to await for St. Nick to come!

(Paul snuck home after we had gone to bed)

In the morning, we all woke up at 7:45 ish (thanks to Mike and his excitement for all his presents!)

We had a great Christmas morning. We were so blessed!

We made our way to church, since Christmas was on a Sunday this year. The choir performed for us. It was a beautiful sacrament meeting!

Noon came along, and we headed over to my parents house. There, my mom suprised us all with giraffe minky blankets that she made for each of us. Somehow, she kept it a secret from all of us. I had been there multiple times durning the month and had seen her working on them. I just assumed that she was working on the same one the entire time (she told me that it was for grandma). We had a great time with the family there, but had to soon make our way over to my grandparents home.

There, we had Christmas lunch and spent time with our aunts, uncles and cousins. My grandparents gave us their tradition present of a mini stocking filled with pencils, nic-nacs and a little toy. As well as some holiday cash!

When we were done there, we went over to Mike's grandparents home for another Christmas. This is the joy about being married, we get to have enjoy Christmas so many times!

We got back to our apartment around 7 in the evening. We watched A Goofy Movie together and then Mike and Paul duked it out in a Nurf Gun war!

T'was a wonderful Christmas!