New Traditions

As it was our first Christmas together (we were dating last year, but Nate flew home and I was in UT), we wanted to spend part of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning alone so we could create our own traditions.

We decided upon a traditional Christmas Eve lunch of "whatever you want to eat". Even when we have kids we hope to continue this tradition, whether they want macaroni and cheese or lobster tail. Nate chose to get a lobster tail (from WinCo, they are super cheap) and coconut crusted tilapia. I just wanted to eat chicken, but decided to brown sugar some bacon and cut the chicken open to stuff it with the bacon and mozzarella cheese. We grilled our items and ate them with a side of asparagus. It was delicious all around.

We had a traditional ham dinner on Christmas Eve with with twice baked potatoes and rolls. Yum!  We watched It's a Wonderful Life, which is such a great movie and I hadn't seen in years. Nate's family rotates every year from  watching that and A Christmas Carol (with George C. Scott). We watched that one earlier in the week.

Christmas morning we didn't wake up too early (it helps not having young children who are usually the most excited) we got up around 8. We opened our stockings first, one at a time, so we could be excited with each others gifts. Then we opened all our presents one at a time, taking turns, from me opening a gift to Nate opening a gift. We got some wonderful things and have already put some of them into use.

Wondering what is in the box.

A tie!

What could it be?

A mandolin - I also got a food dehydrator, so its perfect to cut most the fruit up into the right sizes.

Another surprise

A rubber boat - to explore lakes and rivers and to fish from.

Peeking out from our new ice fishing tent (of course he had to set it up in the yard right away)

Testing out my new camera remote.

Aspen was afraid to go over the pile of wrapping paper and boxes and would go around the other side of the couch and under the coffee table to come see us.

The spoils and the trash.

My family has the tradition of having orange juice and Pillsbury cinnamon rolls (sometimes orange rolls) for breakfast. Christmas Eve I juiced some oranges and then made the cinnamon rolls after opening presents. After playing with our presents a little more and cleaning up we used my new egg pan and Nate's new panini maker to make breakfast sandwiches. We used normal white bread, cheddar cheese, bacon and scrambled eggs and made a most delicious sandwich. 

We left around 1 to spend a little time with Nate's maternal grandparents and then have them drive us to the airport to head to Virginia. Kelly and Brandon were on our flight and just a couple rows ahead of us, so it was fun talking to them before we boarded (of course our flight was a few minutes delayed), peeking up at them from our seats, face book chatting,  and waiting for our luggage together. We got into Dulles International around 10:30 and were greeted by the whole Berrett clan, except Mama Sandi.

We both thought it was a wonderful way to spend Christmas, and we didn't mind flying either (especially cause it created emptier airports). It also helped us to get over the sadness of having all our presents open and wondering what to do next. I'll write about our adventures in Virginia soon.