Christmas is coming!

It's that time of year again when the lights and trees are up and suddenly everyone loves everyone else. I have always been a big fan of Christmas. Despite not really growing up with a lot of money, my parents always managed to provide a good Christmas for us and it was a joy to get up really early and sneak downstairs and stare at the living room full of gifts. It's not really as much fun now as it was then since I usually know what's under the tree. It takes a lot of the anticipation away when you pretty much already know what you are unwrapping. It's kind of a double edged sword though because if I don't ask for what I specifically would like, then I end up with some really strange random things sometimes! But I really think my favorite part of Christmas is the beauty of the season. I love how beautiful houses look when they are all decorated. I love how amazing the church looks when all the greens and lights have been hung up. I especially love Christmas music. I also love to give presents and try to find the perfect thing that the specific person would love. Unfortunately I have resorted to gift cards over the past few years because some people are so hard to buy for.

This year Christmas will be busy as usual. We have already celebrated Christmas with Steve's dad as he was only coming back for Thanksgiving and not around Christmas. We will be going to my mom's this Saturday afternoon, and then my dad's on Saturday evening. Then on Sunday we will go to Steve's aunt and uncle's house for a get-together and ornament exchange. Then Christmas day we will go to Steve's mom's for lunch and then to my step-family's the day after Christmas. Unfortunately we do have to miss Christmas with my paternal grandparents since it is at the same times as my mom's. But I made sure to go there for Thanksgiving since I had a feeling that the Christmases would conflict. I am learning that you can't make people happy all the time, and not usually even most of the time. So we try to get where we can and not feel stressed over it. Feeling stressed over Christmas kinda defeats the purpose in my mind. I do feel sad about having to miss two Saturday night church services in a row but I suppose sacrifices must be made. And since I am always the child who has to bend then my stuff gets missed. But it keeps the peace so I guess it is worth it in the end.

Christmas

I had a pretty good Christmas this year. We has several Christmases to go to this year. We started out with my Dad's house on Christmas Eve afternoon. From my dad I got a Dirk Pitt novel that I will try to read even though it's not my particular flavor of book. I also got some DVDs, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (my favorite of the four), Fred Claus, Step-Brothers, and a Larry the Cable Guy Christmas movie. Later that evening we went to Steve's mom's house for Christmas and dinner. I got a Snowman candle holder, a crockpot that I wanted that the lid will hook closed on, gloves, a reed diffuser (from Steve's brother), and a couple of picture frames. We didn't go to church that evening because the roads were slick and our Christmas eve service isn't until 11pm. Christmas morning Steve and I celebrated our third Christmas together. He got me a pair of slippers, the Enchanted soundtrack, the Twilight soundtrack, the 20th Edition of Dirty Dancing DVD, pajamas, my KitchenAid mixer, earrings, a calendar, two computer games that I wanted, and stocking stuffers like scrunchis and nail polish. We spent the day enjoying each others company and getting out the new stuff we got. Then we went to my mom and Terry's house that evening for turkey dinner and Christmas with the immediate family. I got an 8 foot ladder, some picture frames, a "Faith, Hope, and Love" plaque, and lots of fun stocking stuffers. We also got movies from my lil brother and movie theatre gift certificates and a gift certificate to eat out from my older bro. We had dinner at Steve's sister Michelle's house on Friday. She and her husband got me a gift certificate to Kohl's and got us a gift certificate to Walmart to share. His dad was there from Virginia and got me earrings/necklace, a J bookmark, a candle, a prayer journal and devotional, a lettering thing for the wall, body spray, and lotion. We also got money from grandparents on my side. So that's just what I got for Christmas and not counting all the stuff Steve got. All in all, I got a lot of neat stuff and have enjoyed using the gift cards to get stuff that I get to pick out. Hopefully I remembered everything cause I obviously got a lot of stuff this year!

My sweetie is sleeping right now because he has to go to work tonight. I can't complain too much though because since he is going to work tonight, he won't have to work on New Year's eve! Yay! We will be staying home, most likely. I don't really feel the need to go out and party of the day that all the drunk drivers are out trying to kill people. I am glad Steve won't be out on the road that night going to work too. I think that's it for now. I spent the afternoon getting the Christmas stuff put away and will have Steve help me with the tree when he gets up. Hard to believe it's over!