A Perfect Christmas

Christmas was so special this year! Every card, text, email and note I received reminded us how special our first Christmas as a married couple would be and it surpassed my expectations! We got up early on Christmas Eve to head to my brothers house where would spend Kaylee's first Christmas opening gifts. She is just precious, all smiles and giggles as Mom helped her open gifts. Then we went to lunch together in Naperville, Kaylee slept through the entire lunch! It was great to be able to spend such a good amount of time with my Shawn, Tiffany and Kaylee. After we stuffed our bellies we went to pick up my parents and head to the Willow Creek Christmas Service. I was most excited to go to church on Christmas Eve! It's always been a tradition to go to church on Christmas eve with my family so to be able to go to a service again on Christmas Eve and have it be at our own church was fantastic! To have it be the Willow Christmas service too was an added bonus. For anyone who hasn't been to their Christmas service, it is just amazing and this year was no exception. It was heart-warming and was so wonderful that my parents were there with us too. After church, we went to Fridays to kill some time and grab snacks before heading to Grandma's to meet the rest of my mom's family who were in town this year. The kids are all so darn cute and always the highlight of my Christmas Eve. While they're all ripping open their gifts, then playing with them us cousins and aunts/uncles catch up while eating more good food. After all the fun, we drove back to the city. Jason and I watched Christmas Vacation while waiting for my parents to arrive. I think we went to bed later that night than I have in a over a year!

Christmas was spent with my parents (and Sophie) at our condo downtown. Jason made cinnamon rolls for breakfast then the rest of the day was spent watching Christmas movies, dad taking a nap and snoring, lots of food and lots of talking. We had some snacks while opening presents, followed by our Christmas dinner (on our new table!). It was so much fun cooking dinner for everyone and I was really glad everything turned out okay. I had my mom cook the ham so it would taste okay and I paid close attention so hopefully I can do it all on my own next time. After my parents left, Jason and I opened his families gifts and then each others. We then laid on the couch watching more Christmas movies and was just perfect! It's hard that we have to split our holidays between our families and couldn't see Jason's family but since we were able to see them for Thanksgiving, it was nice to be home in our own home for our first Christmas. I will remember this year for years to come, I hope your Christmas was just as special as ours! Merry Christmas!