It seems every year I approach Christmas with my feet dragging. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with my famil(ies) and giving/getting presents but I just hate shuffling around for 5 days and never feeling like I can just relax and get “quality time”. This Christmas was especially challenging since Jon had to work the entire time, leaving me to pack, drive, and unload by myself everywhere we went. We made the best of it and actually had a lovely (but fragmented) Christmas.
First up we did “fake Christmas” at my Mom’s house, which was extra special since my brother Dustin was home visiting from the Army. My Mom always makes things special for all of us and it was great to be ALL TOGETHER for once.
My brother Dustin and I snuck off to get a sunset cocktail just the two of us.
We made homemade Cheese Soup and Pretzels too!
Meet "The Tower of Power" - this is a tradition we do where the night before Christmas everyone gets two gifts to open, one of which is always some new Christmas pajamas
We spent actual Christmas with my husband’s family this year and it was such a treat to get to play with my niece and nephews while visiting with all the siblings. My niece wanted to take a picture of me and we made a deal that I would let her if I could take a picture of her too:
The Smith family went all out this year and even made family T-shirts (we are dorks, but fun dorks).
Oh wait! It gets better. We also have matching pajamas:
On Christmas morning it was time to head to my Dad’s house. My Dad is so thoughtful, he totally rearranged things and made it so we could go and visit my husband at work on Christmas day (tear). It was a pretty brilliant idea too with the weather being mid 70′s and sunny on Christmas day. We had a picnic and watched Jon in action for a few hours before going home to open presents.
All in all it was an excellent holiday and we feel super lucky to have such great family in our lives.
