the amazing painting my parents gave us of our reception site.
I have to say- I think this Christmas was my favorite ever (and that includes the one where I got my first bike so that is saying a lot!) My parents and sister came over to our place Christmas morning to have breakfast and open gifts and it was such a wonderful time!
the beautiful necklace my sister gave me
Thanks to smitten kitchen for the amazing recipes (everyone. go get the recipes for dreamy creamy scones, baked french toast, and winter fruit salad. Add some bacon on the side and it's a little piece of heaven for breakfast.)
We received a lot of cooking stuff (including 3 skimmers. apparently I was very persistent on how much I wanted one so everyone in the family got me one. and I thought no one was listening :) ) and these knives that my parents gave us are amazing. Cuts everything like it was butter.
It was so nice having everyone together- laughing, telling stories, and trying to catch the place on fire (my bad. whoops. Thanks to my sister and J for being quick on their feet!)
J surprised me with a photo book he created of our wedding photos. I almost started to cry the moment I saw what he'd done! It's so beautiful and special and heartfelt. After breakfast my parents, J, and I headed to J's parents house for lunch and more present opening. I love how much our families get along. I know not everyone is that lucky, but seriously our parents mesh so well. Our dad's have the same corny sense of humor and our mom's can talk all day to each other! It was so relaxing and made J and I so happy to see how well "combining the families" went.
the family heirloom my in laws gave me!
After stuffing our bellies full of green bean casserole, ham, etc we said our goodbyes and thank you's and left for my aunt and uncle's house for dinner and desert. I won't go into too much detail here, but there was homemade chocolate mousse and coconut cupcakes filled with little pillows of vanilla pudding. My aunt rocks. (and kudos to my mom as well so injecting and icing said cupcakes. I've eaten an extra 2 already :))
my gift from my other awesome aunt. yay! I can sew now!
So there's the "short" recap. Overall it was a wonderful holiday! I hope everyone had a great day as well and have been enjoying some time off with your friends and/or family (or both!) We have a concert to go to tonight and I think we are hosting a small party tomorrow for NYE. Can you believe it's almost the new year?? wow. and what do we call this year? ten? Sounds weird.
*we were incredibly touched and lucky to have received so many amazing and thoughtful presents from our families. These don't even scrap the surface at how giving everyone was, but I just thought I would share a few things as opposed to everything :) And once again, to all of our family, thank you so much!! We were blown away by y'all!