Christmas Recap

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families. I was really lucky this year, and was able to spend it with Kyle and his family, along with my parents and my brother. I went a little bit overboard this year with my gift-giving, but it was so much fun watching my family and friends open their presents. I definitely found the perfect gifts for everyone this year.

Thursday morning Kyle and I woke up and got an early work out in, then headed back to the condo to get ready for all the festivities! Since we knew we were going to eat a ton, the workout was definitely needed. I loaded all of our gifts into our cars, and we headed off to our houses. Kyle and I agreed a long time ago that we would never make eachother spend all of Christmas Eve/Christmas with only one of our families. So we split up, and reunite on Christmas day to see both families. It’s a little different, and as the years go on I’m sure we’ll have to change it, but it works for now.

I got to my house around 1:30 after running some last minute errands and having Christmas Eve lunch with Kyle. Immediately, it was time to wrap everything, a.k.a. it was time to help my dad wrap everything he got for my mom and brother because he always saves it for Christmas Eve. This is one of my favorite traditions, and I truly look forward to it every Christmas Eve. So we spent about 3 hours wrapping gifts and writing out cards together, then we moved it all under the tree. By then, my mom was home, so it was time to help her with her wrapping!

My brother got there around 4, and we all joined downstairs to sit by the fire and watch some corny holiday movies. We ate a late dinner, which is something different every year, and relaxed until it was time for bed. I ended up staying up really late, of course, so that I could put out all of the stocking stuffers that I bought for everyone. I finished the night just relaxing by myself and talking to friends who are in all parts of the country for the holidays. This year was very different for all of us for many reasons. 1. My parents have officially sold our house, which I had lived in for the past 14 years. It closes in May, so this is the last Christmas there. 2. My brother will be deploying in 2016. and 3. Kyle has an upcoming deployment as well. It’s a lot of change all at once, some good and some bad, but we were all really grateful to be spending one last Christmas in the house we truly grew up in. And from the way things are looking, Kyle and my brother won’t be here next Christmas to celebrate, so it was an important memory to hold on to.

Christmas morning was extremely busy, but I loved it! My brother and I spent the night at my parent’s house, and woke up to open presents (like we were still 12). My mom made her usual cinnamon rolls, a tradition that has gone on for as long as I can remember, and we all exchanged cards. This has always been my favorite part, besides opening stockings, because it really captures the fact that, although we spent the entire month running around buying things, that’s not what’s important. The important part is how we show our gratitude, appreciation, and love for each other. So we buy these simple little cards, and we write out something special for each person. Someone always cries, happy tears of course, but it’s a tradition I definitely want to carry into my own family someday. After exchanging all of our gifts, we sat around and tried on/used everything we got. This happens every year, mostly between my brother and my dad with any tools or gadgets that they got. No matter how old they get, they’ve always done this. My mom and I usually try on clothes and eat chocolate or something. What other day is it acceptable to eat chocolate at 10am?!

Once things were finished up, Kyle came from his house to get me and we headed over there to give his parents their gifts. I’ve always been one of those people who loves to watch people open a gift I bought, but gets extremely anxious when I’m the one opening the gifts. Especially since it’s Kyle’s parents, and they always go way overboard and spend too much on us.

We finished the day at my house for some champagne and Christmas dinner, which was a nice relaxing end to the day. Afterwards, we cleaned things up and headed back to the apartment so that we would be ready to wake up early and do some shopping for ourselves!