I Love ... L-O-V-E Love Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I love driving by the houses seeing lots of cars parked outside, the soft glow of candles or Christmas tree lights coming from the windows and just knowing that for a night - most of the world around me has slowed waaayyy down. Even in all of the business leading up to Christmas, those 2 days, life feels still.
Well, I should preface that by saying it feels that way AFTER 6pm on Christmas Eve. I am a crazy person and actually went to the mall Christmas Eve morning to pick up ONE last minute gift for my Grams. Its not that I minded the hustle and bustle of the crowds in the mall as much as the 30 minutes it took me to actually get into the mall parking lot and find a parking spot. Short traffic lights + hundreds of last minute shoppers on the road has the power to rip the merriness right out of you I tell ya. Thats why you shouldn't do it people! Lesson learned for next year.
Lets speed back up to AFTER 6pm on Christmas Eve. :)
We spent the evening of the 24th at Mark's parents house like we did last year. Enjoyed a delicious dinner of prime rib, played some games and opened gifts. My father-in-law had been working on a special project all year for us. We knew about it, but we hadn't seen it yet so we were excited for it to be unveiled.
A beautiful, hand crafted dining room table. It even has 2 12 inch leaves to put in it to extend it! I know this will be a treasured piece of furniture in the future, especially to Mark.
Christmas morning we spent just the two of us, and Piper. We enjoyed a little fire while we opened our stockings...
But other than that we only had one gift each to open under the tree, since we had agreed that our new appliances were our Christmas gift to each other. I should've bought a big red bow to put on it on Christmas morning just to make things more exciting ; ) But I do love my new refrigerator!
We snapped a few pictures in front of our tree before heading to Mark's Granny's for lunch.
After lunch and presents at Mark's Granny's we headed to my parent's house at about 4pm. We played some more games there, mostly enjoyed one another's company and opened some more presents.
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| Mark loved his new Orioles Grill Spatula! My brother Noah had his name this year; We always draw names among the siblings... |
I loved the new boots my sister Erin got me!
She had me this year! Check out what else she made me...
Erin and her husband made me this gift to hang in Mark and I's music room. I absolutely love it and can't wait to hang it up!
My Grams was super excited about her new wallet.
My fantastic parents who continue to make Christmas a special and magical time even for their married children. They always go above and beyond on Christmas and we have always been spoiled growing up with the best Christmas memories (not always the presents either!)
One last family picture of our 2nd Christmas together!
Here's to hoping Christmas was a delightful ending to 2013 for you and your family
and a beautiful beginning for the New Year!
PS
Look at our Christmas picture from last year...(ignoring the poor quality)
Look how big our puppy has grown this past year!
I miss being able to pick her up and hold her!
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