Almost Christmas

Christmas is only 5 days away!!!! Yay!!!

Before my parents got divorced, holidays, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas were the best holidays because the whole extended family and family friends without a family of their own nearby would all gather at our house.  It was full of fun, laughter, lots of yummy food, and we'd all stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve (technically Christmas Day) to open all the presents.

Ever since we were dating, hubby and my Christmases and Thanksgivings were quite lonely.  It was always just the two of us, as we had moved out of state and left all our loved ones back in California.   It was always two gifts, one for him, one for me, under the tree.  It was just such a sad sight that we wouldn't even bother putting the gifts under the tree! We'd keep them hidden in our closets and surprise each other on Christmas Eve.  Thinking back on those years, the holidays were so sad, but also cozy at the same time. 

This year, with the newest addition to our family here, we both wanted to make Christmas more of a big deal than it used to be, even though J is too young to understand, or even to open his own presents.  There are gifts for J under the tree and hubby and I have gotten each other many gifts for each other as well!  My in-laws and BIL have also sent gifts for the entire family and while the gifts themselves are not really all that important, we are really happy because just having their gifts under the tree makes us feel like a part of them are going to be with us on Christmas Day as the 3 of us gather around the tree to open up all the goodies. 

I finished my Christmas shopping 2 weeks before Christmas and have mailed off all the Christmas cards today.  Wanna see our Christmas card mockup?

Originally we had planned on taking a family photo to put on the card, but it just didn't happen and J ended up on the card by himself.

The message is different on the actual card we had printed.  They're from Costco and I loved how convenient the ordering process is- order online, pick it up in person in an hour.  How great is that? (Especially so since I TOTALLY and COMPLETELY procrastinated on these photo cards and had less than a day to get them printed, addressed, and stamped!)

Hope you are all finishing up or have finished your shopping and have a holly jolly Christmas weekend!