A Very Merry Christmas

We had a few scheduling conflicts for Christmas this year... one being that the Seahawks game fell smack in the middle of the four-day holiday break, which meant driving back and forth from Seattle to Olympia a couple times, and the other being that Stewart had to work on Saturday and Tuesday (Christmas Day). I know this is something I'll have to get used to as a firefighter's wife, but I was still a little sad that I didn't get to spend Christmas morning with my hubby.

Luckily my parents were super understanding and flexible about the situation, and we made a plan to open all the immediate family gifts on Christmas Eve after church and dinner (we decided to order in Chinese in honor of A Christmas Story).

As usual, everyone was incredibly generous and thoughtful with their gifts this year. And it was actually really fun to open presents at night in the glow of all the Christmas lights and decorations. We got lots of great stuff that we'll be able to use at the new house, and it seemed like everyone liked our gifts, too.

Playing games while we anxiously awaited it to be time to open presents!

Gorgeous Christmas tree and Mom super excited to open her first gift.

Lovely Christmas decorations all throughout the house.

I woke up around 5 a.m. with Stewart to send him off to work in the pouring rain before heading immediately back to bed. You'll never guess what I woke up to a few hours later...

A White Christmas!!

A few hours later our relatives from my Dad's side of the family arrived for our annual Christmas morning brunch. After eating way too much delicious food we gathered together around the tree to open gifts. We had two rounds this year; the first was an extended family name drawing and the second was a White Elephant gift exchange.

Dad always plays Santa.

With my favorite ladies on the couch waiting for the fun to start.

Shane, Tara and AJ.

Greg & Diane.

Tara with her White Elephant win - temporary arm tattoo sleeves.

Score for me and Stew - he was very excited about his 2013 Chuck Norris
calendar and I loved my Christmas decorations.

Me and Kate with the book she stole from her mom.

After the gift giving was complete we proceeded on to another family tradition... the annual photo shoot!


Couples shot of Tara & Jody.



Family portrait of the cousins.

The Getchman Family.

Grandpa & Grandma with all the Grandkids.

A little while later my sister Nichole sent me these
adorable shots of our nieces Sophia and Aubrey
opening the gifts we mailed down to them.
We missed seeing them for Christmas so much!

And later that afternoon I went over to my Grandma Sally's house to see my Mom's
side of the family, but I neglected to take any photos except this one of these
absolutely adorable penguins.

While I was doing all that family stuff poor Stew was at work... but he had some visitors!
Russ, Patty and Patrick stopped by the station to wish him a Merry Christmas and drop off
some gifts... and also let Patrick try on some of the fire gear. Lookin' good!

And I stopped by the station on my way home to have Christmas
dinner with the crew and drop of Stew's gift from the family gift
exchange... which I am really jealous of!

What I tried to keep in mind this year (while I was incredibly sick and really missing my husband) is that while nothing is ever perfect, I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful family that I get to spend time with for the holidays. Stew and I hope that you had an absolutely amazing Christmas with your family and friends this year.

Merry Christmas!