Every year, I say that this is the “best Christmas ever.” And every year, it’s true. Including and especially this year.
We began our celebration on Christmas Eve at my parents’ house. It was a little different to drive a half an hour to get to my stocking, rather than just running down the stairs, but it was still wonderful. This year, my stocking had 2 of everything in it! Unfortunately, it was not all for me; I had to share with my husband.
We then devoured the traditional “monkey bread” breakfast, and when the barn chores were finished (not by me :)), we sat down to the business of opening gifts.
Here’s this year’s tree, complete with “knitted sock garland” from my dad’s antique sock knitting machine (he makes these socks out of wool from our sheep).
I was thrilled to receive a ton of tools, the Young House Love book, earrings, a scarf, a hat, and much much more. It was awesome.
The rest of the day was filled with game playing and food. My new favorite game? Set. It’s incredibly hard and I’m horrible at it but I love it. The only problem was that it wasn’t gifted to me personally, so I had to leave it behind at the end of the day…but it’ll go on next year’s Christmas list.
We left around 8 and headed to our apartment, and both Kenny and I came to the conclusion that we’d rather open our gifts to each other then and be able to sleep in on Christmas day…since we were going to hit up the 11pm candlelight service at our church.
It was the right decision.
My gift highlights: a new sleeping bag, camping cookware, watercolor paints, and a gorgeous blazer. Ken has good taste.
I insisted on photos. Ken begrudgingly complied. It was a good thing I buttered him up first with all those gifts.
This year, I wrapped a bunch of our gifts in plain brown kraft paper, partly because it was very cheap, partly because we ran out of wrapping paper, and partly because it’s the trendy thing to do. I also took the initiative to sharpie on some bows and tags, and was SO EXCITED when Kenny wrapped a gift for me in a similar manner. This guy knows the way to my heart.
After sleeping in on Christmas day (the candlelight service wore us out!), we headed to his parents’ house for gifts with his immediate family and then extended family.
If this picture could be animated, you could see our feet practically wriggling with excitement.
My gift highlights: giving away photo books of our wedding and receiving a rain coat, new purse, and additional dishes (yay!). Kenny basically got an entire new wardrobe of Ralph Lauren clothes and Sperry’s shoes. He was pleased.
In summary: it was pretty wonderful. And I’ll say this for the gajillionth time too: we are so blessed.
Planting Sequoias 
December 31, 2012 at 9:33 am
Sounds like a great Christmas!