First Christmas Away

This year was Tim and my 2nd Christmas together. Last year we spent the weekend with my wonderful and crazy family, so this year it was Tim's turn to spend Christmas with his much more low key family. :) We're still working out how this is going to work with alternating Christmas with each family. This was my first year away from mine, and even though I'm glad my hubby got to spend it with his family, it broke my heart to be not be there to obnoxiously sing the 12 Days of Christmas with the Reinecker clan, or stuff my face with delicious "ethnic" food at the Handys'.

I still needed to give my family their gifts, so my mom got it planned and we all had dinner and opened presents on the 23rd. Here are some of the better shots from the night:

My bro-in-law, Ryan, Tim, me, & big sis, Colette drinking wine and feeling fine

Ryan opening his DIY Ultimate Iced Blended kit 

Tim opening one of his gifts from my fam

Mi con la mia Mamma. 

The gift Camille couldn't wait until gift-opening time to give me - amazing robot watch/necklace.

We got some pretty great gifts. Thank you, family, for being so generous this Christmas.

Saturday morning we took our time getting out of the house. We meant to leave by 10:30, but didn't end up on the road until 11:45. My little sister came by for breakfast since she was only going to be in town for 4 days, so that put us behind schedule for a bit since we hadn't packed when she called to say she was parking. My wonderful friend Deedee hitched a ride with us and we dropped her off in Carlsbad to spend Christmas with her 9-month-old niece (who is pretty much the cutest thing ever), then continued on our way to San Diego to spend Christmas eve and day with Tim's parents.

Christmas morning we got up and ate a delicious breakfast Tim made for us. Then the four of us sat down to exchange gifts. It was very nice and low key. It's definitely an adjustment from the Christmases I've had growing up. They got a few presents for the dogs too.

Panda stole Maddy's kangaroo. They got her a bear, but she slobbered all over it and moved on. 

We also took a walk up to the park near their house and let the dogs run around for a bit. The weather was absolutely beautiful. I wore a lightweight loose sweater that day and was starting to get uncomfortable toward the middle of our walk.

Tim's dad, Marlin, running around with the dogs on Christmas day

We drove back to the Valley on Monday morning, and spent the day running errands and getting ready for real life. I wish it was Christmas more often. I almost said every day, but man, that would be exhausting. :)