This past week, my Grandfather was reminiscing on Christmas traditions...his biggest piece of advice for Brandon and I???
"Write about all your "firsts" because soon it will be hard to recall all the details." So, Grandaddy...we are taking your advice! Here it is...our FIRST CHRISTMAS!!!
Before I begin, I must digress.... I never, EVER, thought I would be the type of pet-owner to get a picture of my little doggy with Santa. Nor did I ever think it would be done with my little doggy niece, Cody. But here are Wrigley and Cody with Santa Claus....how cute!
And here are a few throw-back photos from the early days! Brandon and his brother, Shane...
Me with my sister, Kasey...
And now, our first Christmas as a married couple!!!
We began the week with a LONG drive home to Des Moines. I had to work a 24 hour shift on Saturday and got done around 7am on Sunday. By 8am, we had hit the road.....Brandon drove the whole way there! What a sweetheart! I slept all the way.....
Because I hadn't gotten to celebrate my birthday with my family, my mom had prepared my favorite birthday dinner for our arrival...my Mimi's spaghetti. YUMMY! It was SO tasty!
On Monday night, we had our annual "Soup Supper" with our very close family friends. It was so nice to see everyone after having been gone for the past 6 months! What a nice time to celebrate!
On Christmas Eve, we went to Lamoni - a small town in southern Iowa where my mom grew up. I haven't missed a "Lamoni Christmas" in all 28 yrs of my life.... We showed up in enough time to have Pizza Shack for lunch! Mmmm....it has been TOO LONG!
Our tradition on Christmas Eve is to go up to the Shack for Taco Night. My Uncle and his kids (who own the restaurant) get a whole bunch of taco stuff set up for us to have for dinner. Then, they have a whole ton of sugar cookies ready to be decorated. It's always a contest who can make the best ones..... (Sometimes creativity is rewarded if you can use the Christmas cookie design, but think up something else to make with it.....hence why you might find a skull, piece of pizza, and KC Chiefs logo.)
Despite the VERY COLD temperatures, we always go Christmas Caroling after dinner to take some of our sugar cookies to different families. Being from Tennessee, Brandon wasn't the most prepared of people!!!
After caroling, we go back to my
Grandaddy's house and enjoy family time. These are my cousins, minus the St. Louis ones who chose Cozumel instead of
Lamoni for Christmas this year!
We always open one gift on Christmas Eve - usually a pair of PJ's. Since Brandon was the new addition this year, I made sure he had his
own flannel pants to open on Christmas Eve!
Christmas morning, Santa leaves us gifts down in the basement. Brandon and I, along with my 2 sisters, received these AWESOME metal palm trees! I've got it all set up on my dining room table now!! It looks so great! Thanks Santa!
Brandon and I got some really nice gifts this year including 1) plane tickets home for the Cancer Benefit 2) Bose surround sound system (which Brandon LOVES) 3) Multiple pairs of Uggs and much, much more! We were so blessed! Brandon surprised me with a few items from LuLu Lemon, which is my new favorite active wear!
On Christmas afternoon, we usually go out to the Graceland gym for kickball, dodge ball, and hide-n-seek. Unfortunately, the blizzard that came through Iowa prior to our arrival made this very difficult. After trudging through the snow to get to the gym, the locks on the doors were frozen and we couldn't get inside! Instead, we set up a sledding path from my grandaddy's front porch and sledded/snowboarded the night away. It was so much fun!
We were so grateful for getting to see family this week and getting to celebrate Christmas with everyone!
We will be anxious to celebrate in a few weeks with Brandon's family!
