Petrie Power: Christmas 2009

Even if this Christmas wasn't what we normally would envision for ourselves, it was still a great Christmas. Nick and I both felt that we needed some way to be able to make this Christmas "ours". We felt awkward being a part of his family's traditions, so one thing that we did was to buy a little tree and we put it in our bedroom so that we could put our own presents under it, and our own ornaments on it. It was a huge help to be able to make the holidays seem a lot less awkward.

We didn't have a star that would fit our little tree, so we Macgyver'd a star out of two dollar store star ornaments, and tied them together around the top of the tree. We thought it worked out pretty well.

This year, we did our usual open up new pajamas on Christmas eve (Tinkerbell Pj's for me, and Transformers Pj's for Nick), and then we woke up early, before everyone else in the house was up to open presents on our own. We got creative with some gifts this year, as we have been trying to save up as much money as possible to get back on our own.

Here are a few memorable ones...

This one is to me from Nick, he made it look like something from the Jewlery store Zales...

But inside were a few marshmallows and a note that read
"You've been naughty, so here's the scoop...You're getting nothing, but snowman's poop!"

He was getting back at me for last year when I put some coal in his stocking :)

Another creative idea, this time from me...A BOX OF POPCORN!

But what's this? A coupon for a movie night! "To be performed without whining or complaining."

Some other things we got each other were:

From me to Nick:
some Axe shower supplies
A new white dress shirt
the video game Demigod
and a new wallet!!

From Nick to me:
Ferrero Rocher's
a new watch
The Sims3 video game
a coupon to get a perm!!

After we opened our gifts to each other, we had breakfast with Nick's family, and then we exchanged gifts with them. They were very kind to get us a bunch of gift certificates to be able to go out on different dates. Nick's mom wrote me a very nice letter, telling me how much she appreciates having me for a daughter in-law and also gave me a statue of Joseph and Mary on a camel holding baby Jesus, so that I can paint it. There is a tradition in Nick's family to paint ornaments every year, and they all make fun of me because it takes me HOURS to paint ONE ornament (I'm just very particular :)) but I love to do it, so this will definitely be something to keep me busy.

Later in the day, Nick and I went to visit my family. This year my mom decided to have Christmas dinner with Keith's sister, Missy and her family. It was a nice change, because Keith's side of the family is one that we don't get to see very often. Missy has a son named Cameron, who is around Ryan's age, and it made me feel really old, because I haven't seen him since he was probably about 5, and now he's around 13, so I was totally that weird distant family member who says,

"The last time i saw you, you were THIS big!"

We all had a good time though. Here's a photo of my Uncle Todd and my brother Ryan goofing around.

My mom's side of the family, since there are so many people usually does a get together every year where we draw names for the kids earlier in the month and do a Yankee swap for the adults. The weekend after Christmas we went to my grandfather's house.

My mom is one of 6 kids. I am the oldest of the nieces and nephews. All of my other Aunts and Uncles are just starting their families, so I get counted as one of the adults now. One of the cutest moments of the party was when my cousin Ben, opened his gift, which was from my mom. He is at the age where he loves to dress up in different costumes, and really wanted a batman costume for Christmas. My mom found the only one in the entire store! he was SO excited when he opened it up, and of course he had to put it on right then! He looked so adorable!