I can’t believe Christmas has already come and gone. With Marshall studying hard for finals and me being so tired after work each day that I didn’t have energy to work on my handmade gifts, Christmas kind of snuck up on us. This resulted in more stress than I usually have leading up to the holiday but all all in all, things turned out good. Next year I will definitely have to start earlier (more like Heather who made several absolutely incredible felt decorations for my mom and me).
Our Christmas Eve festivities started out in San Ramon where my Uncle John and Aunt Tiffany hosted a very tasty dinner at their house for the Hollfelder side of the family. We then traveled to Marshall’s parents in Twain Harte and then traveled to my Grandma Gillott’s in Salinas. I’ll get to that later though.
This year at Uncle John and Aunt Tiffany’s it was just my parents, Marshall and me, Grandma and Uncle Greg. Heather and Jeriah went to Kris and Skip’s and Jeffery and Mandy went to her family’s house. This turned out to be kind of nice though as I was able to spend more time talking with my aunt and cousins. I rarely get to see them so it was nice to be able to chat. =)
While we waited for dinner to be served, I spent quite a bit of time hanging out with Jeena and Tessa and learned that they both really like pandas and that Tessa has some mean drawing skills. She made a Christmas cards for both Marshall and me and drew a very cool looking panda on Marshall’s card. =)
Marshall and I also got to try the Wii which was pretty fun. Apparently you can play the Wii while sitting down which Robyn and Michael demonstrate in the picture below.
I was a little bummed that we didn’t bring our dogs but I knew it would probably be more stressful to try and keep Sierra from whining or fighting with Gromit (their boxer). Luckily, Gromit is a very friendly dog so I got to spend some time playing with him which was fun.
Before we had dinner, I had a chance to take some pictures of Grandma with various members of the family (Jeena, Mom and Dad and me)…
After dinner, the girls handed out gifts and we took turns opening our presents. Aunt Tiffany picked me for the gift exchange and made me this incredible red, yellow and blue quilt which I absolutely love. I thought it was really cool that she took the time to make me something and I know it was a ton of work so thank you very much Aunt Tiffany. =)
After all the presents had been opened, Jeena and Michael did what I was thinking which was to start throwing wrapping paper snowballs in the house. Fortunately nothing got broken and no one started crying so it was all good. =)
A big thank you to both Uncle John and Aunt Tiffany for having us all over for Christmas Eve. We had a wonderful time it was very nice of them to share their home and time with us. We love you guys and look forward to another great Christmas next year. =)
