Christmas Report

This year we stayed at home to have a cozy family Christmas. It was nice to relax without the stress of travel during the Christmas break.

Regarding Wrapping Christmas Presents:
I Love It! Leading up to Christmas I had a lot of fun wrapping presents. The bulk of what was under our tree were things for Ruthie (mostly stuff that she needed or would need soon- a 3mo sized sweater, 0-3 mo white onsies, and baby books she can grab, put in her mouth, and otherwise attempt to mutilate). I also enjoyed wrapping things in as many packages as possible. For example, Christian got a 6-pack of socks that ended up in his stocking and two other packages. I pretty much wrapped anything that came our way. My parents sent a present (already wrapped - bummer) as well as some DVD's that they found they had duplicates of when they cleaned out their movie trove, so I wrapped them up too. We needed a new can opener; I bought one and wrapped it. I was pretty much a wrapping machine. I find wrapping fun and relaxing. I can't explain why - I just do!

Ruth's First Chirstmas
(She managed to spit up on this outfit shortly
after taking this picture)

Christmas Day:
We woke up Christmas morning and bustled off to 9:00 church. Because Christmas fell on Sunday, there was only Sacrament meeting. There were several nice musical numbers that followed a narration from the scriptures of the Christmas story. The Bishop's remarks concluded the meeting. Back at home we enjoyed opening stockings and presents. Ruthie is too little to get into Christmas, but we enjoyed being together all the same. Christian and I took turns opening her presents while we held her on our laps. Among the Christmas presents were a new set of scriptures for Christian (his were falling apart) and a pasta roller for me (kudos to Christian for remembering that I said I wanted one for Christmas back in January). Christmas afternoon was spent making food. Our friends, the Hendersons (Nic, Stephenie, and Natalie) were coming over for dinner. Stephenie was making a ham (her first attempt and well done!) and I was making the sides. We had a great time visiting with them.

In a Christmas Dress from Oma and Boppa

We missed our parents and siblings, but it was special to be together with just ourselves. Now that Ruthie is here, we find ourselves in that transition were we think of "our family" as the three of us rather than the families we come from. It was a beautiful experience to celebrate the Birth of the Savior with our little family.