Christmas 2011

Our first Christmas as a married couple was hectic! But so amazing! And of course, I didn't take pictures of any of it. It actually started on Christmas Eve. We had both of our parents over for dinner. We did the same thing last year too. It's like our combined family Christmas because for now, we're still doing separate family celebrations.  I want to combine them, but no one seems ready for that yet.

So- much to everyone's chagrin- we split up in the morning. Brian went to his parents' house to do their little family gift exchange and I packed Kevin up and went to my parents'. Our families thought we were crazy for splitting up, but we both saw it as our final hurrah with our families as "kids"... you know, because next year, WE'LL be the parents.  Still weird to think about! Anyway, I spent the morning with my parents, Jeff, and Jenn, the dogs all behaved, we ate Monkey Bread and bagels, and I got some awesome gifts including a Cricut craft machine.

I still need to open it up and learn all about it, but I'm pretty excited and you can bet I already have some ideas lined up.

After I left mom and dad's, I headed home to take a shower (because mom's house on Christmas morning is a PJ party!) and drop Kevin off. Then it was time for Brian's house where his parents, aunt, uncle, and grandma showered me with way to many gifts and great food. I picked a good family! We were there for about 4 hours when it was time to head back to my parents' house (together this time) for MORE food and gifts.

My mom does an Italian Christmas dinner, so there was lasagna, sausage, meatballs, and other deliciousness. Oh, and my aunt made this chocolate peanut butter cheesecake that should be illegal. It was so good.

We told Brian's family about Buzz on Thanksgiving, but we didn't really get a chance to tell mine, so we decided Christmas would be the best time. And my mother made it so awkward. We're all sitting down for dinner and she shouts out- from across the table- "Kristen, do you want some wine?" My face turned as red as said wine and I replied, "No, mom."

"And why aren't you drinking wine tonight?"

Aw, jeez. So then I had to turn to everyone and say all sheepishly, "Because we're pregnant."

But everyone was super excited and that was all anyone wanted to talk to me about for the rest of the night. Thanks, mom. :)

We left that night exhausted, full, and happy. It was a really great day with family.

Oh, and we decided to get ourselves a bug family gift this year, and then fill each other's stockings with smaller gifts... So we got...

A DSLR!!! Canon Rebel T2i

It's a little intimidating, but I am so looking forward to using it! Both of our point and shoot cameras have crapped out on us, so I've been using my iPhone for everything... not so hot.

So now, I'm off to learn how to use all of my new toys- any tips would be appreciated!

I hope you all had awesome holidays too! What did you guys do?