Holiday Update — 2012

If you don’t want to hear about my holidays, ya better just exit out of this tab now because all this blog is is an update on my holidays. Hence the name of the post…

I figured I better catch you all up since I was MIA for more than a month. Christmastime equals busy time. I think it’s that way for everyone, so maybe you didn’t even have time to read my blogs if I had wrote some. Yeah, let’s go with that. I didn’t write in order to give you a break during your busy busy schedule. You’re welcome. 🙂

Here’s my Christmas tree with all the presents to give underneath. All my Christmas tree lights died 🙁

My first Christmas extravaganza was in the middle of December at my grandma’s house. We had it in the morning this year and ate breakfast together. I had chocolate chip pancakes that were delicious! We made monster cookies, with everyone helping to put in different ingredients. Travis was in charge of stirring since he’s the new guy in the family. Stirring is the hardest job because there are so many ingredients, including peanut butter. We opened presents, which was really fun. My grandparents had got Travis and I our first Christmas ornament. They wrapped it in several boxes and bags and made us alternate opening the wrapping. It was pretty funny. We also played canasta, of course.

The next weekend I spent with Travis’ family. We ate delicious food. I was extra excited about having homemade chex mix — yum! Santa showed up! That was also exciting and a total surprise to me! He passed out gifts to everyone and got his picture with the children. The next night, I listened to Travis’ dad read the Christmas story from the Bible — a tradition I’d like to carry on with my own family someday. I watched Travis’ nephews (soon to be my nephews!) open zillions of gifts. It was funny to see how different their personalities are. We all played lots of really fun games like Deal or No Deal and Bingo. That was definitely my favorite part. I also got to spend a little time with his family on Christmas Eve, eating ice cream cake and playing with the nephews more. I also got to meet relatives I hadn’t met before, so that was nice.

Christmas Eve night, I spent at my grandma’s. We always have a birthday party for Jesus. One of my favorite parts of this night was listening to my brother and cousin play their new guitars together. It was beautiful, and I’m proud of them both for having the patience to learn an instrument. We all sat around the living room with only the Christmas tree lights on, talking about what we were thankful for or what our favorite parts of the year had been. Then we sang happy birthday to Jesus and ate dessert.

Christmas morning, Travis and I went to my parents to open gifts. Everybody got all kinds of wonderful things. I think my favorite part was giving my parents an outdoor fireplace as they’ve been wanting one for a long time. Then, Travis and I went home to open our own gifts. I got him a gillie suit and he was really excited about it — that made me happy. Later that day, we went to my relative’s house for lunch and presents with the rest of my huge family. We play a “Dirty Santa” type game, where you can steal gifts from each other. Travis and I both ended up with gifts we like. Then we played a board game I had received for Christmas. My dad won.

I missed the last Christmas festivity I was supposed to go to because of the flu. I was so disappointed, I was in tears. 🙁 Instead, I laid in bed and watched “Lost,” a show I’ve become addicted to lately. Travis waited on me hand and foot. I’m pretty blessed to have such a great guy. We went to his parents’ house for New Year’s Eve, but I was still sick. I did get to play Sequence with his sister and her boyfriend, and we all watched the ball drop at midnight. That’s when I got my first new year’s kiss! 😉

And that was my December.

How was yours? Any awesome gifts? Any special traditions? Have the flu? Tell me all about it.