Christmas Day

Joe and I really wanted to keep our tradition of having our own special Christmas morning with just our family of four. So, Christmas morning we woke up in the room we were staying in at Joe's parent's house, got some coffee, and settled in for our little gift exchange.

First, we took down our stockings.

(I had to hang them up the night before.)

Then the dogs got to open their gifts. Well, actually, Jackson opened both gifts while Ava watched from the warmth of the blanket on my lap.

Jackson playing with his new Christmas raccoon.

Then we opened the gifts from each other.

You can still see Ava sleeping in my lap - that's my girl!

Joe has been begging me for the movie "Shooter" for months.

Yay! The new S.K. book!

mmmm... Beckham. :)

I loved our little private Christmas morning. I don't have any pictures from the rest of the day, but we had another nice relaxing day with family. We headed over to Joe's aunt's house for lunch and hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps. After lunch we went back to Joe's parent's and a few other family members stopped by to catch up. It was nice.

Low-key, that was our Christmas. And it's just what we needed.

Christmas Eve Festivities

I can't believe it's New Year's Eve already! I've really been lazy between Christmas and now! So be prepared for a few posts today, so I can get caught up before 2011 begins.

We spent Christmas with Joe's family in Portland. It was a nice relaxing weekend with family.

On Christmas Eve, we invited our friends over so we could give gifts to their kids. One of their little girls, Marleigh, was the flower girl at our wedding. We were really happy to see them during the holiday, even though everyone was so busy.

Marleigh and McKenna

Zander as the center of attention. :)

Zander opening his gift - a dump truck. (Joe almost kept it for himself he liked playing with it so much. I suppose all men are just big boys at heart, huh?)

Marleigh and me.

After we visited with them for a bit, it was time to head over to Joe's sister and brother-in-law's house for Christmas Eve dinner. This is one of the things that Joe has missed the most since we moved away - his brother-in-law's cooking!

Cindy and Shane with the famous prime rib.

Family getting ready for dinner.

My in-laws.

After dinner it was time to open gifts. Everyone was very sweet and generous and we were gifted a lot of great things.

Me and my husband. :)

Sam, Dalton, and Zach opening the last of their gifts. (Look at that mess behind them!)

Cindy with her fur-nephew. Doesn't Jackson look so happy?

It was a great night and I have to say, I'm pretty lucky to have this family as my in-laws. :)

Christmas Fun at Work

The Thursday before Christmas, my work had some fun things going ton. We had an ugly sweater contest, a cubicle decorating contest, cookie party, and potluck. My little team had fun with all the festivities. Here I am with two of my coworkers in our ugly sweaters in front of our cubicle, which we tranformed into a gingerbread house.

I've never owned an ugly sweater, so my coworker brought me one to wear. It was a kid's sweater that was too small and super awful. Unfortunately, I didn't win the contest, though.

Our Fur-Cousin's First Christmas

I have a ton of pictures to share with you of our Christmas, but Joe and I have both been feeling a bit under the weather, so I haven't had the energy to get things organized. Until then, I do have a picture to share with you of our fur-cousin, Bogey.

Bogey is my cousin's new dog and he celebrated his first Christmas with his forever family this year. Doesn't he look excited?

Okay, so he doesn't really look that excited. But he looks cute! And while I wasn't able to visit with him (or any of my family) this Christmas, I hear he had a wonderful time and got lots of great presents.

Merry Christmas to Bogey and all the new pets out there who finally have their forever home!

Christmas Card

I love sending out Christmas cards during the holidays. It's such a fun way to connect with people and show them what you've been up to during the year. And since Joe and I got married this year, this year's card was even more meaningful.

While I didn't want to focus the entire card on the wedding (I mean, that isn't ALL we did this year!) I did have to include one of my favorite pictures from the big day. I also included a picture of Joe and me at Fenway Park, and of course a picture of each of the dogs - our family.


I thought it turned out great. And with Shutterfly's promotion, we got 50 of these lovelies for the cost of shipping. Can't beat that!

Christmas Morning with Mom and Dad

On Sunday, we had Christmas morning with my parents. See, we are spending Christmas with Joe's family this year, so my parents decided to come up early to celebrate. And since my dad is leaving on a ten-week trip to California and Texas on Friday, this weekend was the chosen weekend. We pretended it was really Christmas - wishing each other Merry Christmas and opening presents. :)

First, the dogs got to open their presents. Since we have had the dogs, they have received presents. But until this year, they had never actually had any interest in opening them themselves. But Jackson was totally into it this year!

I think he thought he might be doing something wrong.

Ava required her servants to open hers. (Jackson ended up serving her, lol)

Then it was our time to open our presents.

Mom made me some amazing granola.

Jackson actually even helped my mom open her gift of two DVDs. :) (Yes, that is my mom's gift he has in his mouth. My mom thought it was soooo cute.)

And he helped Joe open his gift of an ipod dock.

I received a handsfree device for my phone. (I guess my mom got annoyed with me calling her all the time on the road, when it's illegal to do so.)

One of our gifts for my parents was tickets to the Gold Glass Cinemas in Redmond. And we headed there right away to watch the movie "The Next Three Days". (P.S. Super stressful movie. Seriously. But good.)

At the theater hanging out in the lobby.

Perusing the menu...

Kicked back, waiting for the movie to start.

Best. Theater. Ever.

My mom had to leave shortly after the movie ended, but it really was a great 'Christmas' morning. My dad, Joe and I all headed back home to relax. My dad left Monday morning.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I know, I know, I haven't even finished with my Halloween posts and now here I am talking about Christmas. But you KNOW me, and you KNOW how much I love Christmas! (Only 51 days to go!!)

And one of the best things about Christmas is Christmas cards! I've always been a fan of sending out Christmas cards, and when I met Joe it became even sweeter - and I realized how much fun it can be to send out those cheesy family cards showing us with our furry family.

But now - now! - we are married!! Which makes it soooooo much sweeter to send out family cards. Which I absolutely plan to do. And I plan to turn to Shutterfly to create my cards because Shutterfly has been good to me over the last few months. I ordered my guest book from them. I ordered a gift for my groom from them. I ordered my dad's birthday card from them.

So, I've started looking around to see which cards I might like to choose this year. And they have so many cute designs, it's going to be hard to narrow it down. Here are a few of my favorites:

I tend to be drawn to those designs that include one main picture. This design is lovely. Simple and elegant.

Then there is this one, which is a bit more fun. I love the black and white photo and love the phrase at the top. I think I like a phrases more than just the simple "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays".

But this is my favorite. The phrase may seem overused to some, but I love what it implies (see the title of this post) and the design is simple but fun.

So, what style of card will I end up choosing to send out? It's still up in the air. But I thank Shutterfly for the opportunity to write this post to start the process of figuring it out.

Do you send out holiday cards?

Holiday Blogger Gift Exchange

I just signed up for the Kitty & Canine Holiday Blogger Gift Exchange, put on by KJ and her adorable pugs! I'm so excited because Christmas is, like, the best holiday ever and this will let me get my fur babies involved in a big way. Basically, you sign your pets up via their form and then get matched up with other bloggers who have pets. You send your pet match a gift and your pets get gifts as well. So much fun! I know Jackson and Ava will love getting their gifts in the mail. And I'm excited to find out where they will come from. Could be anywhere!

If you want to participate, visit KJ's site here:
http://kjpugs.com/2010/11/kitty-canine-holiday-blogger-gift-exchange/