Christmas & The New Year

I have been an incredibly terrible blogger lately... I apologize! I know that most people have taken down all their Christmas decorations and are already moving on to the next holiday (yes, Valentine's Day is a holiday!!). Nonetheless, here is a little update from our first Christmas and New Year as husband and wife!

We started our Christmas celebrations with Christmas Eve at my parents house. We had a delicious dinner and then went to the candlelight service at church. I LOVE worshiping at my parents' church on Christmas Eve. The music, the candles, the sermon... it's always exactly what I need to remind myself of Jesus' birth and the reason for Christmas. After church, we went back to my parents' house to open presents. Ever since I was a little girl, we have always opened presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning. My parents always told us that if we were good, Santa would come early while we were at church. I always thought I was an EXTRA special child :)

Christmas Day we hosted our first family gathering at our new house. Being the overly organized person that I am, I had all the tables up and and everything ready to go the day before. I prepared the last of the food in the morning and everyone came after morning church. We had a delicious lunch prepared by my grandma, mom, and aunts. We then played family games including Catch Phrase & Apples to Apples. It's become a tradition that we play games as a family after we eat and it's something I really enjoy. We didn't do gifts this year but instead did a baked-goodies exchange. It was a great Christmas overall. I know that Dave missed celebrating with his family (they were still in Peru visiting his sister).

Dave and I exchanged our presents on Christmas Eve. I got him a new watch (he's been hinting for a while he needed one) and tickets to the PGA Championship next August at Whistling Straits. He got me a new digital camera - an incredibly nice one! I've been talking about how I want to take a photography class and improve my skills before we have a family so that I can take great pictures of our kids someday. I didn't take many pictures of Christmas but we did manage to get one of us together by the tree.



We celebrated the new year with some friends. We had dinner at one of Dave's friends' parents house with two other couples. It was great to see everyone and spend some time with people from out of town that we hadn't seen since the wedding. After they all left to go out for the night, we went to my friend Mandie's house and spent the night in with her and her boyfriend, Will. We played games, enjoyed some delicious pie, and just caught up. It was a great time! It was nice to stay in this year.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas & New Year! I promise to be a better blogger in 2010 :)