Snapshots of Christmas

One week, four Christmases, and twenty-six hours of driving later, It's safe to say that Christmas is officially over. This Christmas was everything that Christmas is supposed to be. Long days filled with the love of family laughing and spending time with one another. Steven and I were blessed to be able to spend Christmas with most of our family members, and for that, we are so grateful.

Our Christmas vacation started the Friday before last when we woke up and drove south to spend a long weekend with my extended family in central Florida. We had the best time catching up with everyone and spending time together as a family. The weather that weekend hit the mid-80s, so we spent a lot of time outside playing games and laughing together.

We made it home from Florida just in time for my dad and I to do our annual Christmas Eve cocktails and shopping. For some reason we have always enjoyed being those crazy people braving the mall the day before Christmas (after having a drink or two first of course). After our afternoon at the mall, Steven and I went over to my parents house to spend Christmas Eve with my family. It's a tradition in our family that we open one gift on Christmas Eve (usually pajamas or something along those lines), so after dinner we opened our present and said good night to everyone. Steven and I planned to start a new tradition of watching Elf together on Christmas Eve night, but we were so exhausted that night that we both passed out on the couch about half way through the movie.

Christmas day Steven and I spent the morning at my parents house. We spent two hours going around in a circle opening presents. Steven and I must have been very good boys and girls this year because we not only got a stainless steel trashcan that I have been wanting since we moved into our new house (it's funny how excited you can get over something like a trashcan), but we also got tickets for our honeymoon flight to Jamaica and the Honeymoon Suite at a local hotel the night of our wedding! Yay! After presents were opened and the living room floor was successfully covered up by wrapping paper, we ate lunch with my family and then headed home to spend the afternoon and evening with Steven's family. We opened more presents and were once again reassured that we had been very good boys and girls because our guest bedroom is now fully covered up in Christmas presents! We spent the evening watching Christmas movies and then grilled delicious steaks for dinner. It was the perfect Christmas day!






We hit the road one last time this past Friday to spend the weekend in Arkansas with Steven's extended family. We had so much fun spending time with everyone and eating delicious food. Steven and I also received a very special gift from his grandmother. She sewed a part of Steven's great grandmother's doily onto a pillow for us. It's so heartwarming to have family heirlooms like that in our home.

We packed so much into one short week, but we had the best Christmas to date this year. Steven and I are so blessed to be surrounded by so much family and so much love.

I hope you all had just as much fun as we did this Christmas.