Our First Christmas Together

Okay, I'm doing this late but I have to write about our first Christmas together. Christmas is such a great time of year, but it's even better as you're getting ready to celebrate with the love of your life. For the first time ever. And it turned out to be such a good Christmas. We got to see so many friends and spend time with our families. I loved it.

Here's a little calendar of the things we did:
December 3rd: We bought our first Christmas tree and decorated our apartment together. Ben documented most of it with our new camera then edited to make a video Christmas card.
December 10th: We ate Costa Vida at my work holiday party while watching my co-workers bowl at Fat Cats. Later we drove to Landon & Liesl's for the annual "Tea and Crumpets" party with the Wheelwrights, a family close to Ben's family. We had great appetizers and sang Christmas songs around the piano. Oh and who can forget caramel brownies with peppermint ice cream?
December 11th: Ben's great aunt Esther treats his family to dinner at the Lion House on Temple Square each year. We had a delicious dinner with Jane, Chelsea, Esther, and Ben's cousin Alex and her fiance, then walked around to see the lights. What a great tradition.
December 18th: My aunt Pat used to hold a Christmas party each year which has now been adopted by my cousin Circe. I hadn't been to the party for three years due to work and my mission, but it was so great to see my DeBry cousins.
December 19th: We woke up at 6:30am on a Sunday, braved a closed down freeway, long lines in rain and cold, all to see.... David Archuleta. Oh yeah, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir too :) We were lucky enough to get tickets to the Christmas Music and the Spoken Word and then got to watch the mini-concert after the taping. It was phenomenal- so beautiful and well done. It was worth the sacrifice.
That night we had a family party with my parents and brothers and sisters. Mark and Julia both came down with their families and we had a great time devouring the awesome food my mom makes, writing predictions, and opening presents from each other and my mom. Here are some fun photos.

Malinda, Mark & Makayla

Ben & I enjoying the appetizers

With my great mom

My dad and Grandma Freda

Laura and Eleanor. I think / hope she was just yawning.

On the 23rd we drove up to Ogden to visit Ben's dad and grandparents. It was so fun to see the small Christmas houses lit up in the park in Ogden, then eat stew and look at pictures with his Grandma. We then drove to stay the night with Jane in Mountain Green, although we didn't fall asleep until 2am because we couldn't stop talking. That may be a record for Jane :)
The 24th was wonderful. We woke up to a great breakfast (provided by Jane) with breakfast casserole, a berry drink, egg nog, and hot chocolate. Landon, Liesl, and Andelin even drove up to spend the morning. We played games, talked to Sammy in Guatemala, then opened gifts. Sammy even sent authentic headbands for all the girls. We then stayed the afternoon to play games with Jane and Chelsea (Ticket to Ride was a winner) then enjoy a Christmas ham. We drove home about 8pm to our little apartment to spend Christmas together.
Let me explain a little about our preparations for Christmas. I love to Christmas shop. Actually, I love to shop period, but Christmas is a great excuse. This year I decided to get Ben a lot of his clothes for his internship in Washington. I got collared shirts, dress pants, a good winter coat, new shoes, socks, etc. I started shopping in November and I was so excited. Ben, on the other hand, has a different approach to Christmas shopping. Mostly because he's in school and doesn't have time to think about Christmas until after finals. But who can blame him? I was the same when I was a student.

Trying to take pictures Christmas morning. Ben was not cooperating :)

But the preparation didn't matter, because Christmas morning was wonderful. We opened gifts from each other, then I made German pancakes. Later in the day we visited Laura and Gordon's family, watched the Christmas story together, and took naps. So basically, we did nothing. And it was a great day.