Bright and Earl-y: Our first Christmas together!

You would think that Christmas would be less exciting the older you got, but that's definitely not the case for me. I was just as excited to celebrate and open gifts this Christmas as I was when I was a kid.

I'm sure it's because it was Brad's and my first Christmas together and it was fun celebrating in our small family. We decided to have our own Christmas celebration on the 21st since we were heading out the next day to Pennsylvania to spend Christmas with my family.

For almost the entire month of December, I tried convincing Brad that we should open presents earlier but he wouldn't budge. The best I could do was wager a bet one night while we were playing Yahtzee that if I won, we were each allowed to open a present that night. Sure enough, I ended up losing (he has really good luck with Yahtzee), but he still let us open one gift each because he loves me.

I guess marriage has made me a little more mature though because this year I didn't peek at my presents! I can't say the same about years past.

Like that one time when I was six years old and ever so slightly opened a present under the tree and saw Mary Kate & Ashley's Ballet Party. For some reason which still doesn't make sense to me, I went to my mom and sister's and said that I would really like to get "Mary Kate & Ashley's BalleT Party" (with a strong T) for Christmas. They all looked at me funny and instantly knew that I had peeked. I still get teased about it to this day.

Or that time when I was "playing" in our basement closet and stumbled upon the one and only Super Jennie Gymnast!! Being so proud of my sneakiness, I told my older sister Amanda of my great find. Being the great sister that she was (just kidding, she really is a great sister...now), she tattled on me to my mom who threatened to return Jennie Gymnast to the North Pole the next day. (Apparently Santa Claus used Amazon Prime back then and had some presents shipped super early). I cried for 2 hours straight. But have no fear, I found Jennie Gymnast tucked securely under the tree on Christmas morning. Strangely enough, I've never peeked again after that little incident.

But, back to this year, our first Christmas turned out great. I wrote previously about making my first turkey. You can read that here. Opening presents from each other was also a blast. I think I had more fun watching Brad open his than opening mine. Although, that was fun too. My favorite gifts this year were a dresser and two end tables for our room! I was really excited. If you know me, you know I like to be super organized, and having to get creative storing my clothes on the floor in my closet just wasn't working for me. So, he nailed it!

I think his favorite gift was this pillow from Costco that I got him that stays cool throughout the night. (Weird, I know...who wants to be cold all night?) But anyway, he seemed to like it a lot. Enough about gifts though. Let's talk about spending time with my family in Pennsylvania.

Here are some highlights from our trip.

Our family on Christmas day! This trip was the first time we were all together and the first time that Brad met Amanda, Mikal, Andrew and Ellie :)

All of the family that was over on Christmas :)

Seeing Les Miserables with Brad and my sister Jess.

Having to improvise with plastic bags on our feet since we didn't bring proper snow gear. This was when we "borrowed" my neighbors sleds. Did I mention that Brad split his sled in half?

Taking Brad to Eat'n Park for the first time. This is definitely a Pittsburgh thing. And to be honest, the place is about two steps up from Denny's, but you gotta love it.