Christmas;

We had the most wonderful Christmas this year. Every year of our marriage we, have driving for many hours and spent a few day with our families in Boston Mass. Both sides of the family live with in a few minutes of each other, which makes visiting a little easer. On the flip side however, Christmas day has always felt rushed and hectic. It always seemed that as soon as we had settled at one house, opened gifts, and had a little conversation, we had to leave to travel to the next house. It is a lot of fun seeing everyone, but exhausting. We would wait until we returned home to open our gifts to one another.

Well this year we have our Christmas at home. We decided not to travel back to the states for the holiday. We have only been here for five months and we could just not justify the cost of the flight. We bought and sent all of the families gifts back in October, and they sent our gifts to Norway.

To get our tree we walked a few blocks down to a tree lot, and pick out a small tree. Together we carried the tree home, set it up, and decorated the tree with ornaments I have been collecting in the countries we have visited. We bought a few bulbs to fill in the extra spaces, as well as lights and a silver star.

On Christmas Eve, I prepared dough for us to make cookies, and for cinnamon buns in the morning. We filled the stockings and arranged all the gifts under the tree. We lit the tree, set a fire in the fireplace, snuggled under a blanket and watched a movie. At midnight we kissed and were blissful in the moment. The night was cozy, warm, and relaxing.

Christmas morning we got up about ten, made tea and cinnamon buns, and sat down to open stockings and gifts. We took our time and enjoyed exploring each gift as it was opened. When everything was opened, we cleaned up the wrapping paper, and organized the gifts back under the tree. The rest of the day was spent playing with all our new “toys”.  I got “Dance, Dance Revolution two”, so I spent most of the day with that.  Later in the day we both called our families to exchange thank yous for all the gifts.
I made a roast for dinner with all of our favorite side dishes. We spent some time baking sugar cookies together for dessert. After dinner we sat in the living room reading some of the new books. We played my game a little more. All and all the day was exactly what we wanted, relaxing and calm. It is very likely that we will be returning to the states for Christmas next year, so it was nice to have Christmas ourselves this year.