Our First Christmas

Well, in spite of the fact that my parents chose (wisely) to stay home for the day my first Christmas with J was wonderful.

We woke up early, had a quiet moment alone with good coffee near our tree. His parents were up and soon the stockings had been distributed. I have had a spectacular life with many many happy Christmases, but 'doing' stockings was a tradition that my family never embraced. I think it had more to do with the fact that my dad's schedule, as a policeman, was different from year to year. Some years we had our Christmas on Christmas Eve, and in others we were Christmas morning folks. One year we had our celebration on the 23rd. Christmas for us has always been more about the day we are together than the 25th.

So, having never done stockings I was excited to experience it, both as a receiver of treats and to find the right items for the other stockings. It turns out, stockings are WAY fun... the stockings yielded CD's, socks, Pez, ornaments, cheese spreaders, and other fun treats.

After the stockings the distribution of the gifts began. I must say that it is good to be in a new(ish) relationship at the holidays. J is a good gifter (lucky me -- AGAIN) and imagine my surprise and delight to open a pretty new Kindle. (Electronic Book)

J and his dad made breakfast after our overwhelming but delightful gift exchange. It snowed all morning and phone calls were flying back and forth about our expected trip to Duvall for dinner. They had a solid 20 plus inches of snow and we had to make a group decision to go or not go.

In the end, we decided to brave the elements and head east to be with family. The roads weren't too bad, but since my car has front wheel drive, and tires with tread (J will be getting new tires for his birthday... SURPRISE!) I was the driver.

The trip in was slow and felt a little bit like the Autopia ride at Disneyland - where the little cars are on a track but you're sort of in charge of where you go. The snow was making a nice little railing to help us stay on track. My jetta is a low riding vehicle (not "drive-by-shooting-in-the-hood" low) and it was scraping bottom some. We made some very nice "fenderburgs" for our friends in the cars that were following us to dodge.



Once in Duvall we parked the cars in the parking lot of the hardware store and cousin Marty took us the rest of the way to their house. Here's a snow shot that shows the depth of the snow on top of their hot tub. I don't think they've been using it very often.

We had a lovely dinner of flank steak with veggies and then played some party games. I was tested with the game of "Dirty Mind" where you have to guess what object the clue is talking about, but the clues are VERY suggestive. There's something wrong about your future father-in-law reading a clue about hot sticky goo on a wiener (katsup.)

Our trip back home was a bit more stressful, but only because most of the snow had melted off the roads, but the temperature had dropped and we were worried about ice. It was a slow, and slippery ride home, but we made it just fine.

J's family, his parents and the cousins are great. They are fun to be around and they genuinely like each other. There is also a lot of affection between the couples. They have made me feel really welcome and seeing how much they like J is awesome. They aren't perfect...a wing of the family avoided the celebration due to a silly brouhaha that resulted in the entire "drawer of grievances" being opened and aired before Christmas. Time will take care of it, but it is a stellar example that all families have conflict. I'm still new, so having a slightly smaller group makes my entry into the family a bit easier. Smaller crowd means easier name remembering. (Actually, I have this side all figured out, it is the names of the Colorado folks that I may never get.)

So, there's the super exciting run down of our first Christmas. I missed my parents and yet felt completely at home with J's family.