First Christmas

In their new Christmas Eve jammies,

Poised and ready to see the loot.

Club Penguin cards--a real hit.

Ben's first very own Nerf gun.

I love this genuine smile on my Dad's face. It was fun to surprise him.

Ben chose Lego Indiana Jones for Playstation for Todd. It was exactly the right thing.

So, it's already January 10, and I'm finally blogging about Christmas, but you'll just have to accept it and read on if you wish.

This was our first Christmas at home. Yes, we have been married 12 years, and we lived on the opposite side of the country for nearly half those years, but we have made the trek to one of our parent's homes every year. This year we finally decided it was time to be home. And it was delightful. Entirely delightful. I hope that when I write this both our parents realize that this is in no way a reflection on how much we love to visit. But, there is something about feeling the traditions of Christmas in your own space that simply feels right.

We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves. We had no definitive traditions about what to eat or what to do. What do we do on Christmas Eve? What do we eat? I think it's high time that we begin to discover these things for ourselves. We realized that we have a few differing traditions that have never come to light before now. Strange, isn't it.

The real blessing of the season was that though we decided to stay home, we didn't celebrate alone. My parents were here for nine blessed days (the best Christmas present of all), and Ryan's parents were here for four. Ryan's brother Kalen spent a long weekend with us during Christmas, and Ryan's brother, Brandon with family Lucy, Filipe, and Sam were here for New Year's. What a great time was had by all.