First Married Christmas: Midwest, part 2

Before we knew it, we were waking up at the ridiculous hour of 6am Christmas morning so we could fit in present opening before church. (oh wait, that was just me because I wanted to get my shower in before the masses woke up).  I succeeded, but everyone else rolled out of bed immediately prior to these photos, so I'll apologize for them and to them for sharing :-)



Our third Christmas, but the first we've spent together!



We kiddos went in and got my dad a TomTom GPS







the only picture of my brother turned out horribly, so I won't share.

We had my mom's parents and brother/sister-in-law over for Christmas dinner and Kelsey jetted off to be with her new fiance's family, so it was a pretty calm Christmas day.

After an enormous Christmas dinner, my brother fell asleep with Tyson, one of our family dogs, and I couldn't resist the photo op.





We spent the afternoon playing games, chatting and lounging
How cute are Eric and my grandpa?



On Saturday, it was another family party with my dad's extended family so we could see them (this is usually a new year's deal, but they rearranged it for us.

Loads more food (I'm a bad blogged and took no food photos!) and Eric taught the cousins how to play the games he got for Christmas




I have no idea why my sister is wearing her volleyball jersey...and take no responsibility..

It was nice to see the family and be at 'home' for a few days, but we realized quickly we didn't have nearly enough time to do anything but see family (no seeing the city or most friends this trip!)

First Married Christmas: A trip to the snowy midwest

I left work a little early on Tuesday to head back "home" to IL

We were both nervous about the weather and delays so we arrived to the airport 2 + hours early.  The early bird adage proved true as we were able to slip on a direct flight that left 1 hr 45 min earlier than our scheduled (and then delayed) flight.  We arrived at 10pm instead of nearly midnight!

And then the family madness began!

Family Christmas photos are pretty generic and boring unless you're in the photos, so for the immediate family...I'll be uploading all the holiday photo to the share site!)
Christmas eve:
We (20-something of us) opened gifts


ate



played games



and participated in the annual grab bag Christmas game (this year's theme was weight related...each gift has to be 2+ pounds!)



some $10 joys



and $10 sorrows



and lots of friendly thieving



It was so good to see my big family again :-)

First Married Christmas: Decor

Due to other monetary priorities, we didn't put up a tree this year.  Which was a little bit sad, but since we were gone the whole week of Christmas and surrounded by our parents' amply laden trees, I got over it.


I got my fix when we helped decorate Eric's parents' tree when Ryan got home from school.




I'm looking forward to next year's decorations though, because we were gifted with lots of ornaments over the holidays!

A few from Eric's mom...the leaning tower of Pisa memorializing out Italy honeymoon and a frame for one of our honeymoon photos!


a darling snowman ornament I bought from Kohls



As we bought or recieved ornaments I set them out on our fireplace.

from grandma B.

from 'grandma' G.


german ornaments from friends



the gift 'wrapping" of a gift card exchange


I used several coupons and Kohl's cash to purchase a few decorations including this snowflake candle set and holder.

I also purchased several sets of silver and red ball ornaments and displayed them on our mantle in an antique silver dish I purchased from the thrift store.

 and used a string of lights from our wedding to decorate the mantle

the stockings were bought on after-Christmas clearance last year.
Here's the display all together.
I think it ended up kind of tacky, but we'll be prepared for our first tree now!