- Christmas tree shopping with Bob.
We went to the Kiwanis tree lot here and learned about the different kinds of trees they were selling. Then we looked at all of them. We also played hide and seek briefly. After going back and forth in deciding between 2 or 3 trees, we finally picked a gorgeous noble fir to take home with us. Once it was paid for and strapped to the top of the car, we went to Foster's for some ice cream (ice cream + Christmas sounds silly to me, but living somewhere like San Diego makes it seem understandable because it had gotten up into the high 70s during the day), and then we unloaded the tree at home, set it up in the living room, and decorated it together while listening to Christmas music.
- Ugly Sweater Parties.
We were only invited to one this year. But it was fun! And now we'll store those awful sweaters away until next year.
- My gifts to Bob.
My stocking-stuffers to him sucked, but I made up for it with a Kindle and a Leatherman he unwrapped later.
- The gift from me to my mother-in-law.
She likes the color red, and she likes to have a blanket over her while she's sitting in her easy chair. Thank you Lauren for the afghan you made for her! It is perfect! She can't get over how soft and warm it is. She absolutely loves it.
- The Spirit of Christmas that never seems to fail.
I was worried that December 25th just wasn't going to feel much like Christmas this year. Things had been so busy and hectic that we didn't have time to do the usual Christmasy things that I'd been wanting to do. All of Christmas Eve consisted of cleaning and organizing parts of the house for dinner the following day. That night we realized we hadn't bought pajamas for each other yet, so we dashed to Old Navy and arrived after they had already closed and locked the doors. We waited, hoping that we might be able to talk an employee into letting us in. It worked and the employee was so nice about it! Men's pj-pants were completely out, so I got Bob 2 shirts instead of a shirt and pajama pants, and he got me a super comfy pair of pajama-sweatpants. We went to bed tired but happy that Old Navy was so forgiving and kept up what little bit of Christmas cheer I'd felt so far. Christmas morning came around, and we all slept in.
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| Right after waking up. We went out to see what presents Santa had left us. |
Then we went to church and heard some wonderful reminders about how the Savior and service is what the season is about.
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| We snagged a picture of us just after getting home from church. |
We came home and got back in our pajamas. And then we opened gifts. It was fun and happy, filled with kind words and that Christmas Spirit, just like opening presents should be.
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| Stockings stuffed and presents wrapped, just waiting to be opened. |
... ... ...
Next year will be different. We're hoping to be in our own house by then. We'll have an 8 or 9 month-old son, and a third stocking to hang up. We'll probably be more broke than ever and have more bills than ever too. We'll listen to Christmas music most days from the beginning of December to the end of the month. I'll bake and cook a lot more so we can give goodies to our friends and so that our house will smell more like Christmas. We'll even try to mail out Christmas letters to all of our friends and family members.
But the two things that will stay the same will be our few silly traditions and that never failing Spirit that the Christmas holiday always, always brings.
