Mas for Christ.

And so, Christmas was upon us! It has taken an entire month to get this done, so I will give you the highlights!!

We woke up to our first Christmas as husband and wife. After brushing our teeth and sticking contacts on our eyeballs, we were ready to open our presents just from each other. We each had packed up fully wrapped boxes and stuffed our brand new stockings so that we would have a few moments of Christmas alone and together. My favorite gift from Tommy was a framed print of the Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano- which I've loved for maybe five years. And Tommy's big gift was guitar lessons! (He just started them this week- more on that when I can actually talk about January!) It was so nice to dump our stockings out, eat some candy, and enjoy the joy.
When we walked downstairs, there was a huge surprise for us – SNOW! Now, normally I hate snow. After walking through ice and falling and almost dying in wrecks several times, oh and the onset of undiagnosed Raynaud's syndrome, you begin to see snow for what it really is – a sneaky killer. But! A white Christmas- on our first Christmas! Magic.
We then spent the early part of the morning with two sets of grandparents, Tommy’s parents, brothers, sister and brother-in-law, and our new niece. We had a blast opening fun, thoughtful, random, and exciting presents. And we really liked watching people open our gifts to them. We really tried to either be creative or get them exactly what they wanted. For instance- since Tommy’s parents took us on the Alaskan cruise, we created a photo album online and had it printed and sent to us- hard cover and text included! We were really proud of that one.

By this time, the snow was pouring! Yes, snow can pour, you cynical people. You can find pictures on facebook!

And so, being brave and committed to the fam, we slowly drove up and over the Huntsville mountain to reach my side of the family! (Anyone ever read “My Side of the Mountain”…it’s like that, only less outdoorsy and more only applies to the title) And since we followed Allen and Kerri in their big ol’ truck, we felt safe and adventurous at the same time.

We began opening gifts right away with my family. I had a random artsy moment in Gainesville, and had taken a nice picture I thought dad would like, and so had framed that for his gift. And then for mom, we found a breakfast-in-bed type tray with places for pictures- which we filled with pictures of her family- and she did get misty :) We all got a bunch of wonderful presents- I was most excited about a new camera!!

To top the day off, after a fancy dinner with family back at the Middleton's, we all watched Despicable Me. Perfect day.