I don’t care what you say – I wasn’t an adult until this Christmas. Ok, so I’ve lived away from my parents’ home for 10 years now. I have held several adult jobs. I have paid taxes. I have a cat and a dog of my own. Heck, I even have a husband. But, being away from your mommy and daddy on Christmas is a sure sign that you are an adult. Yuck.

But we made it on our own, and we had a great time. We got a little sad and nostalgic, but we were also excited about having our first Christmas as an official family. On Christmas Eve we got the house all clean and ready for relaxing. Ryan had to teach a brief lesson, but other than that it was two wonderful days of relaxing. We slept late. We opened presents. We watched the Nightmare Before Christmas. I made peanut butter balls and gingerbread cookies. We cooked a ham and the fixings. We had Jackie, Chris and Sayun over for dinner. Jackie and Chris even stopped by!

We are very thankful for all of the beautiful cards we received. It’s so nice to look at all of them and think about the people you care about and miss. And thank you friends and family for the wonderful gifts. You shouldn’t have! But we really really enjoyed having fun surprises Christmas morning! Izzie even got a fancy new toy from her Grandma & Grandpa.

It feels like Christmas came so quickly, and was gone just like that. I went back to work(s) today. At least I got to take Izzie to the office to play with Max and Coby! Also, I got lots of great visitors at work tonight to help pass the time – thanks Jenna, Stefania and Sarah!