The Christmas Marathon

December 23:
My dad has a new tradition he is starting for the night before Christmas Eve. We all got together and made our own pizzas with Denise, and then we helped decorate one of my dad's Christmas trees with all the ornaments we got together on our cruise last year. It was fun to look at all the ornaments and remember where we got each one. Then we took a few family pictures and set out on our crazy adventure! Roberts craft store was having a 75% off sale on everything Christmas. Each person in our family (Dad, Alex, Cassie, and me and Matt) gets to pick a decoration of some kind for themselves and everyone else in the family (so you buy 4 things, one for yourself and three to give away). Matt and I got some cool Christmas plates. The idea is to buy decorations for each other to use in upcoming years, and for my sisters to have when they get married. My dad went way crazy buying decorations and fake trees, who can blame him-everything was way cheap. We even had to go out to another store to pick up more stuff. Let's just say, you know things are getting a little crazy when Matt and my dad are calling each other "Honey" around the store. Good memories. We were going to decorate cookies when we got back, but it was a little late and Matt and I were beat, so we went home. I'm excited for all the new traditions!





Christmas Eve:
On Christmas Eve, we spent the evening with the Fischer family. Our new family tradition is to go bowling and have take-and-bake pizza when we get home before we open presents and all that jazz. Bowling was way fun, although I'm not a hard core bowler and was tired after my two games. Last year when we were bowling, there was a family who all wore ugly Christmas sweaters (they were there again this year... must be their tradition too) and Matt and I wanted to do something so we got sweet knee-high socks and wore those. Matt's dad and brothers were a little embarrassed to walk around Sportsmans with him, but he didn't care. Randy made a DVD of the year's events and it was really fun to watch that while the kids were playing with Nanny and Papa. I wish I was as talented as Randy! Of course it was fun to give presents and open everything, especially watching as Brad and Claire opened their huge presents, but the best part of the night was just being together. I'm so glad to be part of a family that loves each other as much as the Fischers do. I love you guys!


Matt and I did all our gifts to each other after we left the Fischer family party. It was fun to sit in the light of the Christmas tree and open presents together, then play Tetris and old school Mario on our wii. It was such a fun first Christmas together.

Christmas day:
We got up early and headed out to my mom's house for presents and sticky buns (yummmmmm). Matt was so excited for his Mr. Jigger, and my mom was pretty happy about her first experience shopping at Cabelas. When you have all daughters, you don't get to do that kind of stuff! I got Photoshop Elements for my computer so I can start making digital scrapbooks and I am excited! I still am trying to figure out how to make everything cute, so if you know how, let me know! (Kendra that means YOU) Matt commented on how calm Christmas morning is at my mom's house, which it totally is. We had hot chocolate, listened to Christmas music and had the fire going while we opened presents. It was so nice. Then we went over to my dad's house for breakfast and more presents. We got spoiled this year for sure. My dad got us our armoire to go with our bedroom set, along with some other fun stuff. Then we ate homemade scones and just hung around. Matt and I took a little nap before heading out to Grandma and Grandpa Norton's house. Then we headed back out to my mom's house for dinner with the whole Decker crew and just messing around together. We had such a fun day. We were exhausted, but it was worth it.