Our First Christmas began like this:
Just before midnight the Eve of Christmas Eve, our location was Marshallville, OH in the living room of Nicks parents beautiful home. I helped Nick wrap my present. He put it in a box so I wouldn't know what it was - then I helped him wrap it! Then 30 minutes later Nick and I exchanged our gifts for each other!
Since we had already got our DVR as our Christmas present to ourselves I had given us a $25 limit for our presents to each other. Nick didn't obey. He bought me a new digital camera. I had only gotten him 3 bottles of syrups to make Milkshakes with or spruce up other drinks since he loves blending! We opened our gifts on the floor by the Christmas tree at his parents. We had also opened a gift earlier that evening from his Grandma Marian with a ceramic tree with removable lights that Nick had played with and re-arranged all the time! He was sooo excited!!
We had arrived in Ohio the day before and had spent the evening with Ross and Clare at their house! We enjoyed pizza together, the the boys went to the basement to watch a boy movie, and Clare and I stayed upstairs and watched HGTV home shows.... Ross fell asleep shortly after so Nick came back upstairs leaving him down there alone and watched TV with us. We got to love on their sheep dog puppy: Winston.
Earlier that day, the eve of Christmas Eve Nick had left to go shopping for my present so I was home alone and a bit bored... so after hours of sitting on the couch I had created 2 Elf Yourself Dances one for the Austin family and one for the Everett Family. Then I made dinner for the family! It was one of my best batches of Cheesey-Broccoli-Chicken soup. Together we watched "The Proposal" which they loved!!! 
The following morning was Christmas Eve day! I went to the dollar store with MomE and then back home where we waiting for Lil' Randy to arrive! About 2 o'clock we met the Everett family over at Grandma Goldies for the Everett Christmas. We had Meatballs and sub/sandwiches and lots of cookies! Nick and I were given an Olive Wood Nativity from 'Ten Thousand Villages' which is a traditional Christmas gift for newly married Everetts! Now we have 2 Nativities - but there is absolutely nothing wrong with having 2 reminders of the reason for the season!
After that we returned home to get ready for the Christmas Eve Service! Even tho we couldn't make both parents happy by being home for Christmas I said that I wanted to be at one of our churches for the Christmas Eve service. Like Mel said in her post - it just doesn't seem like Christmas until you are at church on Christmas Eve! Nick and I arrived and were greeted by many familiar faces! It was wonderful to see so many people I knew even though I wasn't at my home church seeing my favourite faces! The service was lovely! There were 2 monologues; one by Mary, and one by a shepherd - reciting their feelings on the happenings of that night so long ago. It was a different way of looking at the story. The music was excellent. The theme was Joy. The little boy who held the last note of a carol a lot longer than the congregation was my favourite!
After arriving home, the boys watched a boy movie in the living room and I crawled under a down blanket in the "In-Laws" bedroom and MomE and I watched The Holiday together!! She had never seen it and I wanted to watch something Christmasy on Christmas Eve! Lil' Randy tried some of my leftover soup and thought it was great!
Christmas morning came early for me, much earlier than it comes at my house... and Nick and I had stayed up even after the movies the night before to watch the new episode of Scrubs. Anyhoo at 7am (we get up at 9ish and have a leisurely breakfast) and opened all of our stockings and presents! We were done with gifts and I knew if I called home I would wake up my family!
We were spoiled again this Christmas! I got a new hair straightener which I love and is doing amazing things for my hair! Nick got new Ankle braces and knee braces which he had asked for! We received a ton of other gifts but if I went on and on it would be too much! We went to Aunt Barbs house for The Messenger Christmas at 9 and were there all day. I called my parents around 10am, we had steaks marinated by lil'Randy (he made me a chicken), we watched Transformers II and we left after the Cavaliers won their fantastic game sometime around 9ish that night. We packed up so we'd be ready to leave early the next morning for Canada!
6am came even earlier than the 7 o'clock the day before but we made great time, had great weather and arrived at my house before 11am! Before we even put our suitcase in our room we opened stockings and presents!
I got the creamer and sugar set from my china pattern! Now I need the matching Tea Pot!! Nick got 30lbs weights! Among other things of course because we were spoiled again! While we were visiting in the living room, we had 2 visiters! Helen Schwandt showed up with pink gerber daisy flowers for us - she loves me so much - she is so excited for Nick and I as this was our first Christmas together!
Then the Sheilds showed up with Thank You cards for Dad and for Nick and I. 1 was from Karens wedding - the other was because my dad fixed Karen and Jons car on Christmas EVE!!! What a stellar guy my dad is! I love him!
Soo Nick had told me he would watch White Christmas with me on Christmas day and I forgot to bring it with me to Ohio so we watched it on the other Christmas day. It is not such a staple in his Christmas diet as it is to mine. I had already watched it once but that isn't enough and I wanted to watch it with him. So we started watching that while eating pasta and meatballs. We had decided to go to the movies to see Sherlock Holmes.... so we interrupted White Christmas to go to the theatre. It was fun though because Carrie and Melissa were going to meet us there and then come over afterwards! They brought Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Walter (Carrie's) and we ended up having an impromptu fajita dinner party! It was a blast!! Carrie and Melissa and I goofed off and had a grand ol' time together!!! I had received Bump-its so we played with those and took tons of pictures! I love my friends - it was such a refreshing time! It has been soo long since I've hung out with Carrie!
The following morning was Sunday and so we went to church which of course I love! After church we had the Austin Christmas! Finally after Christmas 4 days in a row we had the traditional turkey dinner! It was delicious! This year everyone was supposed to bring a $25 gift that anyone would like and we played a game with marbles... to pick and steal the presents. I ended up with a multiple photo frame! Nick ended up with one of the gifts that I brought which was a ton of Ice Cream toppings/stuff! It was a great present! The afternoon was laid back as usual - we finished watching White Christmas and then we all (most of the Austins) watched UP the new animated movie. Then we watched the Holiday (again)! We waited forever to Michael and Dana to get here... they were coming all the way from his family's in British Columbia... their plan was supposed to arrive in Toronto at 5 and didn't until 6pm so they got to my house about 10pm. We spent a couple hours with them - twas great to see their faces too! Its just not Christmas without everyone there; last year I had to work instead of going to the Austin family Christmas.
We got up early the next morning to drive back to Michigan because I had to work at 2pm. It was a great holiday week!! I'm grateful for all the time I got off of my 2 jobs, and all of the wonderful family that we share and of course thankful for all the gifts we received. I'm also grateful that there was a game on TV last night so Nick was occupied and I put away all of our laundry/stuff/new stuff on the first day instead of procrastinating!!!! Woot! Today I can relax.
Just before midnight the Eve of Christmas Eve, our location was Marshallville, OH in the living room of Nicks parents beautiful home. I helped Nick wrap my present. He put it in a box so I wouldn't know what it was - then I helped him wrap it! Then 30 minutes later Nick and I exchanged our gifts for each other!
Since we had already got our DVR as our Christmas present to ourselves I had given us a $25 limit for our presents to each other. Nick didn't obey. He bought me a new digital camera. I had only gotten him 3 bottles of syrups to make Milkshakes with or spruce up other drinks since he loves blending! We opened our gifts on the floor by the Christmas tree at his parents. We had also opened a gift earlier that evening from his Grandma Marian with a ceramic tree with removable lights that Nick had played with and re-arranged all the time! He was sooo excited!!
We had arrived in Ohio the day before and had spent the evening with Ross and Clare at their house! We enjoyed pizza together, the the boys went to the basement to watch a boy movie, and Clare and I stayed upstairs and watched HGTV home shows.... Ross fell asleep shortly after so Nick came back upstairs leaving him down there alone and watched TV with us. We got to love on their sheep dog puppy: Winston.
Earlier that day, the eve of Christmas Eve Nick had left to go shopping for my present so I was home alone and a bit bored... so after hours of sitting on the couch I had created 2 Elf Yourself Dances one for the Austin family and one for the Everett Family. Then I made dinner for the family! It was one of my best batches of Cheesey-Broccoli-Chicken soup. Together we watched "The Proposal" which they loved!!! The following morning was Christmas Eve day! I went to the dollar store with MomE and then back home where we waiting for Lil' Randy to arrive! About 2 o'clock we met the Everett family over at Grandma Goldies for the Everett Christmas. We had Meatballs and sub/sandwiches and lots of cookies! Nick and I were given an Olive Wood Nativity from 'Ten Thousand Villages' which is a traditional Christmas gift for newly married Everetts! Now we have 2 Nativities - but there is absolutely nothing wrong with having 2 reminders of the reason for the season!After that we returned home to get ready for the Christmas Eve Service! Even tho we couldn't make both parents happy by being home for Christmas I said that I wanted to be at one of our churches for the Christmas Eve service. Like Mel said in her post - it just doesn't seem like Christmas until you are at church on Christmas Eve! Nick and I arrived and were greeted by many familiar faces! It was wonderful to see so many people I knew even though I wasn't at my home church seeing my favourite faces! The service was lovely! There were 2 monologues; one by Mary, and one by a shepherd - reciting their feelings on the happenings of that night so long ago. It was a different way of looking at the story. The music was excellent. The theme was Joy. The little boy who held the last note of a carol a lot longer than the congregation was my favourite!
After arriving home, the boys watched a boy movie in the living room and I crawled under a down blanket in the "In-Laws" bedroom and MomE and I watched The Holiday together!! She had never seen it and I wanted to watch something Christmasy on Christmas Eve! Lil' Randy tried some of my leftover soup and thought it was great!Christmas morning came early for me, much earlier than it comes at my house... and Nick and I had stayed up even after the movies the night before to watch the new episode of Scrubs. Anyhoo at 7am (we get up at 9ish and have a leisurely breakfast) and opened all of our stockings and presents! We were done with gifts and I knew if I called home I would wake up my family!
We were spoiled again this Christmas! I got a new hair straightener which I love and is doing amazing things for my hair! Nick got new Ankle braces and knee braces which he had asked for! We received a ton of other gifts but if I went on and on it would be too much! We went to Aunt Barbs house for The Messenger Christmas at 9 and were there all day. I called my parents around 10am, we had steaks marinated by lil'Randy (he made me a chicken), we watched Transformers II and we left after the Cavaliers won their fantastic game sometime around 9ish that night. We packed up so we'd be ready to leave early the next morning for Canada!6am came even earlier than the 7 o'clock the day before but we made great time, had great weather and arrived at my house before 11am! Before we even put our suitcase in our room we opened stockings and presents!
I got the creamer and sugar set from my china pattern! Now I need the matching Tea Pot!! Nick got 30lbs weights! Among other things of course because we were spoiled again! While we were visiting in the living room, we had 2 visiters! Helen Schwandt showed up with pink gerber daisy flowers for us - she loves me so much - she is so excited for Nick and I as this was our first Christmas together! Then the Sheilds showed up with Thank You cards for Dad and for Nick and I. 1 was from Karens wedding - the other was because my dad fixed Karen and Jons car on Christmas EVE!!! What a stellar guy my dad is! I love him!Soo Nick had told me he would watch White Christmas with me on Christmas day and I forgot to bring it with me to Ohio so we watched it on the other Christmas day. It is not such a staple in his Christmas diet as it is to mine. I had already watched it once but that isn't enough and I wanted to watch it with him. So we started watching that while eating pasta and meatballs. We had decided to go to the movies to see Sherlock Holmes.... so we interrupted White Christmas to go to the theatre. It was fun though because Carrie and Melissa were going to meet us there and then come over afterwards! They brought Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Walter (Carrie's) and we ended up having an impromptu fajita dinner party! It was a blast!! Carrie and Melissa and I goofed off and had a grand ol' time together!!! I had received Bump-its so we played with those and took tons of pictures! I love my friends - it was such a refreshing time! It has been soo long since I've hung out with Carrie!The following morning was Sunday and so we went to church which of course I love! After church we had the Austin Christmas! Finally after Christmas 4 days in a row we had the traditional turkey dinner! It was delicious! This year everyone was supposed to bring a $25 gift that anyone would like and we played a game with marbles... to pick and steal the presents. I ended up with a multiple photo frame! Nick ended up with one of the gifts that I brought which was a ton of Ice Cream toppings/stuff! It was a great present! The afternoon was laid back as usual - we finished watching White Christmas and then we all (most of the Austins) watched UP the new animated movie. Then we watched the Holiday (again)! We waited forever to Michael and Dana to get here... they were coming all the way from his family's in British Columbia... their plan was supposed to arrive in Toronto at 5 and didn't until 6pm so they got to my house about 10pm. We spent a couple hours with them - twas great to see their faces too! Its just not Christmas without everyone there; last year I had to work instead of going to the Austin family Christmas.
We got up early the next morning to drive back to Michigan because I had to work at 2pm. It was a great holiday week!! I'm grateful for all the time I got off of my 2 jobs, and all of the wonderful family that we share and of course thankful for all the gifts we received. I'm also grateful that there was a game on TV last night so Nick was occupied and I put away all of our laundry/stuff/new stuff on the first day instead of procrastinating!!!! Woot! Today I can relax.
No comments:
Post a Comment