Our First Christmas

Our first Christmas together was wonderfully quiet and simple. Matthew cooked one of my favorite dinners for us and of course paired it with the perfect wine. After dinner Matthew and I went to church where we met up with Katlynn, one our our close camp friends and together we all enjoyed quite the jubilant Christmas service. I did start to cry a little when we started lighting the candles for Silent Night because I knew that my mom and little brother had done the same thing only hours early on the other side of the country. I tend to do this when the big sister side of me kicks in and I realize how much I miss my little brothers. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who was there to squeeze my hand and I pulled it together before they turned the lights back on. After church Matthew and I went back to our apartment, opened our Christmas pajamas, ate some Christmas cookies and headed off to bed.



The next morning Matthew woke up early, as is his custom, made coffee to lure me out of bed, and then we opened our gifts...with a little bit of help from our curious kittens.

Christmas Dinner (a couple of days early)

So we celebrated Christmas a little early this year because my brother, Ryan (not Kaden of course) was getting married on the 26th on the east coast. Matthew and I had the honor of hosting Christmas Dinner at our apartment this year. Matthew's mother, father and sister drove in from Fresno and my dad and stepmom came up from Monterey loaded with yummy foods. Matthew spent the whole day cooking a fabulous dinner and I took care of baking the traditional holiday sweets. After dinner the ladies, armed with coffee and cookies headed to the living room to watch It's a Wonderful Life, but ended up chatting away the night instead. Meanwhile, our fathers sat down with their own drinks and played a couple of games of chess, which was a special treat for my dad because neither my stepmom or I play chess.

My dad an stepmom then headed back home and the rest of us all snuggled down for a goodnight's sleep. The next morning Matthew's mother made a beautiful breakfast and we exchanged gifts...it was just like Christmas!