our Christmas

was awesome! We had a fun party-filled week leading up to it, a magical Christmas day, and even a lovely day-after party.

Clint and I are sort of clinging onto our newly-wed tradition of moving out mattress into the family room and sleeping by our tree. We love it so we figured we will keep it up as long as possible! :)

We woke up early Christmas morning to go to church early (about 8:15) where I sang in three choir numbers and Clint sat by himself in the congregation. It was a great meeting and we sang some of my favorite songs including "O Come O Come Emmanual" and "The First Noel." I felt like ending with "Joy to the World" but I was fine with the classic closing song choice "Silent Night."

Then we came home and promptly changed into pajamas again for our gift ravaging session. Clint and I have come up with a way to make the gifting session last as long as possible while enjoying every minute. We take turns picking out a gift for the other one to open, and watch each other open it.

Among other things, I received some nice cold weather gear, jewelry, a laminator, a nice weight set, and these ultra cozy slippers which I am wearing right now.

Clint thought this was a funny picture of me trying to remember what things were in each of Clint's gifts as I tried to decide what he should open next.

Clint received some nice, dressy casual shoes, running shoes, a new gym bag and lock, ties, jeans, and lots of chocolate. :)

Santa also brought us a few new movies and.... (drum roll) dum dum de dum! A new laptop! I was super surprised and excited to open up that little nugget. Of course we will both have convenient uses for a laptop, but I especially am salivating at the prospect of taking my work en plein air. That is, having freedom to work from wherever and also testing out my creative writing powers under various natural settings.

And so in conclusion I must say: Clint is a fabulous gift giver. As are my parents, his parents, and our siblings. We have been inundated with blessings.

We also refuse to follow in the steps of the local radio stations and pretend that Christmas is just a day that comes and then goes. So we still happily play Christmas music at our house in the evenings while sitting next to our tree and admiring our stacks of opened presents.

Hope your holiday season continues to be magical as well. :)

Happy New Year!