A Journal of Our Life: Our First Christmas

Christmas Eve and Christmas were two very busy days for Jon and I, Christmas Eve we had church in the morning, which ended fairly early. Then we went straight to Nana & Pop-pop’s for the big gathering of my Dad’s side of my family - my favorite part is Nana’s homemade Chicken Pot-Pie! :) After that celebration, we headed back to church for the Christmas Eve Service. From there we went over to Jon’s parents for dinner and to open our stocking stuffers from them. It was a late night but it was fun. Here's a picture of us at Nana's (click to enlarge):

Christmas morning we slept in until around 8:00. I had made Cinnamon Buns ahead of time for breakfast and prepared coffee to brew first thing in the morning, but we aren’t big breakfast eaters, so neither of us was even hungry for the cinnamon buns. But we did drink our coffee while we read the Christmas Story recorded in the book of Luke. Then we poured ourselves some egg nog and set out some white chocolate covered Oreo’s and began our gift exchange. First we opened our stocking stuffers from each other and then our bigger gifts that were under the tree. Jon had been warning me for days that I wasn’t getting much for Christmas because my biggest gift was really expensive - he said it wasn’t something from my list; So I was really curious to find out what it was. Of course, Jon made me wait till last to open it, so I’ll wait till last to tell about it :). I got a big tub of gum balls (my favorite candy), some Creative Memories things, a cute pink cell phone holder, and a bunch of fun stocking stuffers. Jon got the new Ipod Shuffle, 2 video games, a wallet, a video game strategy guide and a bunch of stocking stuffers. I ALSO got a remote starter for my car, which was fully installed and functioning on Christmas morning!! That was my big gift, in case you’re wondering. I have no idea how Jon thought of the idea because I didn’t even realize I wanted one until a few days before Christmas, when I heard that someone else was getting one. I was so excited! He was really sneaky and got me to leave my car home two different days – one time I thought he was going snowboarding and the other time, he went out to start my car in the morning and said it wouldn’t start – while I was at work those two days he had the remote starter installed in my car! Isn’t he great?! :) I’ve been enjoying never getting into a cold car ever since Christmas. Below is a picture of one of Jon's gifts to me. He bought this really cute paper that wasn't actually wrapping paper, but he liked what it said, so he wrapped one of my gifts in it, I thought it was adorable!

After Jon and I opened our gifts from each other Christmas Morning we went over to Jon’s parents to spend some time with them and open our gifts from them. We couldn’t stay long though because by 12:30 we had to be at Grandma Bea and Pop-pop’s for my mom’s side of the family gathering. There we ate a yummy lunch and opened more gifts! Right from there we went over to my parents house to spend time with just my immediate family and open our gifts from my parents. Once again, we couldn’t stay long… we were back to Jon’s parents by around 5 or 5:30 to have a light dinner and then go over to the Inn for hide and seek, which has been a tradition for years. Christmas Day is the only day of the year that the William Penn Inn is closed; and Christmas night we go over with a bunch of our friends and play hide & seek all over the restaurant. We’re allowed to eat anything we find too! This year I was sort of a bum, I only played the game for a few rounds and the rest of the night I sat and talked with the moms. I was really tired. Jon had a great time though, especially when his team found a hiding spot that no one discovered for most of the night :).

So, that was our Christmas! I’m sure I missed plenty of things but I got the gist of it. I thought everything went really well for it being our first Christmas “on-our-own”.

Since we didn’t have that much time to ourselves during the actual holidays, Jon and I got steaks and had a nice candle-lit dinner Tuesday night. That was fun! Jon made the steaks and I made corn bread, noodles, beans and a baked potato for Jon. After dinner we just relaxed the rest of the night. It was great spending time together and not feeling rushed or stressed. Here's a picture of the table all set: