Christmas 2011. Part 1

Another Christmas has come and gone, and I can't believe it! It seems like it always sneaks up on me and now we're another year away from the next one. It's so crazy to think how different things are from the previous Christmas and all that changes in a year. This year, was our first Christmas as a married couple and it was so great to spend so much time with my husband our families in those few short days. It was a wonderful, but busy, time!

We took off after work on the Thursday before Christmas for Trent's parents' house. After we got there, we went out for supper with them and hung out for the evening. Then, on Friday, we were joined by his sister and her family for our Christmas celebration. It was so fun to see our nieces open their presents, and to see Taylor get so excited over her new stuff. We also got some great presents, including these awesome things:

From Dayspring.com
Love this site!

Pillow from Pottery Barn

Made by my sister in law.
Inspired by Pinterest.

Then, on Christmas Eve, we were joined at Trent's parents' house by some more extended family and we spent some great time together just hanging out and talking and eating. It's always so much fun to see family that we don't get to see real often.

Mattie in her new Christmas Bell Collar

In the early evening, after the members of our extended family took off for home, we headed to church. It was a great service and it was great to be able to share that time with my parent's-in-law, sister- and brother-in-law, my wonderful nieces and, of course, my husband. It was the first time that I had attended a Christmas Eve service anywhere other than the church that I grew up in, so it was great to be able to experience the way it's done somewhere else while remembering the great memories I have of church growing up.

After church, we headed back to Trent's parents for another great meal. After Trent's sister's family left for the evening, we watched the last part of It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story before heading to bed.

After Church on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning, I woke up beside my husband, which was a very nice, new thing to have. :) Even though he's not a very happy camper in the mornings, I managed to get a little grunt out of him to acknowledge me when I told him Merry Christmas when we woke up. After we got all ready for the day, we had an amazing French toast breakfast with Trent's parents before saying good bye. It was so hard to believe that it was already time for us to leave and that our Christmas celebrations with the Fredericksen's were over for the year. So after a few hugs, we were off to spend the next few days with my family.

Part 2 coming soon.