The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas with your family and friends!  Hard to believe it has already come and gone!

Nick and I had a wonderful Christmas and felt so blessed to spend it with loving families and friends.  Christmas is truly the most wonderful time of the year.  I always find myself reflecting back on the year and feeling overwhelmingly thankful.   Most of all, I am thankful for the Lord's gift to the us, His son, Jesus!  He is the reason we celebrate!

Christmas Eve is a big night for my family.  We spend the day baking, cooking, and hanging out together.  Then, as evening approaches, we get all dolled up and ready for the festivities.  We have a wonderful, over the top dinner.  This year we ate Filet Mignon, scalloped potatoes, green beans and a fancy salad.  Side note: I am not a red meat lover by any account.  I could be told I'll never have red meat again and not even flinch.  However, I have decided that Filet Mignon is by far, the most amazing meat in the world.  I could eat it every day and be very happy and round.  End of story.  After dinner, we head to church.  It was a beautiful service, complete with a candle-lighting ceremony in which we all got to participate! 

On our way home from church, Dad tortures us and makes us look at lights... which kills us (even as 20-something-year-olds) because we know... that gifts await us back at home!  That's right... we open our gifts of Christmas Eve!  If not by coincidence, Nick grew up doing the SAME thing!  Makes things nice and easy for us!

My husband loves joking and making me squirm.  Christmas is no exception.  It should have been no surprise to me that he would pull some sort of shenanigan!  At the beginning of December, I had sent him a photo of a pair of boot that I found at Macy's.  Just a little hint, hint, ya know?  Well, fast forward to Christmas Eve.  I opened up a large box Steve Madden box from him... only to find this treasure inside:

Yes, that's right!  It's a piece of the retro orangish-gold carpet from our house!  The man KEPT a piece since JULY!!  I suppose it's a nice reminder of how far we truly have come on our home renovation project!

                                                    The face of "Christmas Joy"!

I didn't take a picture, but low and behold... there was a second box for me with a pair of boots.  I absolutely love them and will most likely wear them as often as possible!

The next morning, we all anxiously pour our coffee and whisper about what we think Santa brought us.  (Okay, maybe that was when we were kids.... but we are still excited!)  Being grown-up and married now, I never would expect that Santa would still think of me.  Yet, every year, I am floored, absolutely stunned, by the generosity that Christmas morning brings.  It makes me excited to share that same Christmas magic with our children one day!

Nick and I were blessed with a kitchen tool that I never dreamed of having myself. 

You can bet that as soon as we move into our new house, we will be whipping up soups, ice-creams, and anything else that this fancy machine can make.  If you know anything about the BlendTec or VitaMix... you know exactly why I am so excited.  It was pretty sweet having my hubby be just as excited about a blender as me!!

We spent the rest of Christmas with Nick's family.  We feasted on delicious homemade noodles and desserts.  It was fun to watch the little kids squeal with delight as they unwrapped gifts and screamed, "LOOK, LOOK!!"  After lunch, we headed to yet another party where we had the third major meal of the day!  (Yes, my stretchy pants are officially tight).  

To top of an incredibly perfect two days, my hubby and I exchanged our own personal stockings with one another.  One of my favorite things about Nick is his thoughtfulness and ability to say/do just the right thing at the right time.  The last thing in my stocking was this sweet ornament:

Yes, it made me cry.  He knows exactly how much I have longed to spend Christmas in our new house, fully decorated with our Christmas decorations. This sweet gift reminded me that next Christmas with be double-special.  Not only will be it full of all the blessings listed above, but it will be our first Christmas in our home. 

Glasses raised to 2013; it's bound to be a wonderful year full of love, growth, family, and surprises!