Our Christmas!

Hey y'all! Happy (day after) New Year!  I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Years Eve!  Sorry I've been a bad blogger :( Things have been so busy around here! But, now that things have calmed down, I've been reading your blogs and have loved finding out what you all got, so I thought it would be fun to share some highlights from our Christmas too!

For starters, Neil and I usually stick with opening presents on Christmas morning, because it's more exciting that way! But this year, our church was having a Christmas morning service at 9:30 am, so we decided it would be better if we all opened our gifts on Christmas Eve.

Kazy was ready to open gifts even before we were!

We had huge stockings this year! Partly because some gifts didn't get wrapped in time, so the perfect solution was a jumbo stocking!

Some of my Christmas goodies! Complete with a Nook Tablet (which I love!), some Lilly stationary, scarves (I think I got 7!), super cute jewelry including some Swell Caroline monogram earrings and a Star Fish jewelry set. When we went to my moms house (post coming soon!) we also got some great gifts, including about 10 kitchen appliances! More on that in a few days!

Neil's Christmas gifts included lots of clothes from L.L. Bean and Brooks Brothers, a new Fly Fishing rod, along with a new fly tying kit (which he put to good use right after he opened it!) and other fly fishing accessories. A leather man belt (he loves it!), accessories for his gun, several books, all of which I highly recommend and lots of other goodies here and there! Oh, and a R/C Helicopter, because, no matter how old they are, every boy needs a real toy on Christmas, or that's my opinion anyways!

P.S. The Christmas Story movie was playing the whole time we were opening gifts. Is that a tradition in your house too?

Now on to Christmas Day....

We all woke up early, earlier than we wanted to, but that's ok. It's like Neil told me, "Jesus did so much for us, the least we can do it wake up a little early and go to Church!" So, that's what we did!

The service was short and sweet, our Pastor told the Christmas Story, which I never get tired of hearing, and the man who usually plays guitar on Sunday mornings, got up and sang a beautiful version of "Mary Did You Know".  Overall, it was probably the Best, but also the only, Christmas morning church service I have been to!

After Church, we all went to our favorite Chinese restaurant! I had never done that before, but I had so much fun! When we got there, we were the only ones there so far. The Chef was standing at the door and welcomed us with a big "Merry Christmas".  The food was delicious and it totally beat standing in the Kitchen all day cooking!  That is Neil's cousin, Leah back there...I guess she thought something was scary..? And, yes, I tried eating with chop sticks but only made it about 3 minutes before I gave up.  

When we got home, Neil and Kazy went out side to try out his new rod. I couldn't tell who was enjoying it more! Oh, and don't worry, there was no hook on the line, just a bit of yarn!

I hope y'all had as good of a Christmas as we did! And I look forward to reading more about what you got! Did any of you get some of the same things I got? What was your favorite gift this year?

xo Julia