Recycling Myself: Christmas

Charlie gets in the Christmas spirit.

This was our first Christmas as a married couple, and our second Christmas together. I think one of the hardest thing as newlyweds is trying to combine both of your traditions into one combined holiday, and I think we were successful this year.

My husband's family is a Christmas type of family. Their house always has Christmas M&Ms in it around Christmas, his dad collects MANY nativity scenes, there's garland and lights all over the house, and a clock that plays a different Christmas carol every hour, on the hour. My family kind of does their own thing. This is probably the first time in a long time that I've spent 2 consecutive Christmases in the same place. 2 years ago, I spent Christmas with a friend's family in Slidell, the year before that, I stayed with my best friend's family in PA. Regardless of where I've spent Christmas, I've had some traditions that have stuck: Looking at Christmas lights, and cinnamon rolls.

Last year and this year my husband and I decided to have "our" Christmas with just us. We exchange our gifts, we have dinner, and we drive around and look at Christmas lights. This year, "our" Christmas was the same day my sister came to visit Philip's sister after having her baby. So the added bonus of the night was spending time with our sisters, brothers-in-law, and nephews (and Philip's parents). We went to Yukon to drive through their parks and look at their lights, which was very fun.

Me and my mom!

The next morning, my mom flew in from Philadelphia! This year my mom turned 60, so Philip and I decided a long time ago to buy her a plane ticket for Christmas. I hadn't seen my mom since Thanksgiving of 2011, so this was really exciting. We did lots of things with her, including a trip to Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill and, our favorite place, Pop's.

And Philip, too!

Mostly this week, we spent time with my in-laws. My new nephew, Luke, was baptized, Philip's grandparents and aunt and cousin came to visit, and we ate A LOT. It was an awesome holiday. We even got some snow!

I used to not be a fan of Christmas. It didn't really hold the best memories for me, and at best, it was just another day. (That's not to say I was ever wanting for anything, I was a VERY fortunate little kid on Christmas mornings). But doing it with my husband and his family, and some of my family, making our traditions a priority, and looking forward to future Christmases together has brightened my outlook.