Oh right Christmas...

I can't believe I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks...my bad. Things have been busy around here. Did you hear? I'm getting married in 4 days!  I didn't want to leave you guys high and dry so here's a little Christmas recap!

I signed the cats up for KJPugs Kitty & Canine Holiday Blogger Gift Exchange.  Ian was paired with Arielle and Beans was paired with Prim.  Normally my cats are not big fans of toys, we'll get them a package of mice or whatever and they sniff around them for a few minutes then return to playing with the tops of milk bottles or other random household items.  I was very impressed when they both immediately started playing with their new toys from their new friends!  It may help that there was plenty of catnip included...

We started our holiday celebration with our annual dinner at The Library III restaurant.  It's funny we almost always get sat at this same table.  The food was delicious as always and we were in and out within an hour and a 1/2 so there was plenty of time to meet Joe's mom for church.  Other than that our Christmas Eve was pretty uneventful, after church Joe & I drove around for a little while looking at lights then went home and I think we were in bed before 10pm!

Christmas morning started at home where Joe & I indulged in mimosas and cinnamon rolls while exchanging gifts with each other, my favorite tradition!

We started with our stockings where I found all kinds of goodies!  New pajamas to wear to my mom's house for brunch, an over-sized diamond ring ornament for our tree to represent 2012, an extra charger for my iPhone 5 and a gift card to Starbucks!

Next up we started in on our gifts to each other.  I may have gone slightly overboard with Joe...  He made a couple of comments about how many more gifts were in his stack then mine.  My pile was a little smaller because there's was one super fancy gift, an iPad mini!  I'm super excited to use it on our honeymoon!  I'm hoping to put up a couple of posts during the wedding weekend & while we're in Antigua from it!

I'm pretty sure Joe's favorite present was a new crock pot that you can set and forget.  I thought it was going to be the apple TV but he seemed way more excited about all the things he could make for dinner in this guy.

I also received a new fitbit!  I'm super excited about it's ability to sync with my cell phone & iPad, no more waiting until I get home at night to see how many more calories I've earned!  Anybody else get a fitbit?  Let's be friends!

A little while later Nicole, Jack & Lou came over to exchange gifts.  I'd say Jack was happy with the toolbox we got him, he wanted it opened immediately and was talking about all the things he was going to build and fix with Joe.  We also gave him a wedding related present, a t-shirt that says "I'm in charge of the rings."

Next it was off to my mom's house for brunch with Shana & Bill.  Some highlights were this super cute Anthropologie watch my sister gave me and an ornament for my mom.  I'm not sure I've mentioned it here but Jack calls my mom "Chickie Bak Bak," we have no idea why but he just started one day and it stuck.  Well, my sister got her a chickie bak bak ornament!

As is tradition, we all wore our matching pajamas and took a photo for posterity.  

As we were packing up to head home the boys decided to try out the sabercut saw I got for my mom.  She's had a tree limb down in her yard since super storm Sandy and they figured it was the perfect place to test it out.  It surprisingly worked really well and offered quite the work out!  Maybe I should take care of the rest of the limb to work my arms before the wedding?!

Our last celebration of the day was at Joe's parent's house.  We went there around 3pm and exchanged gifts before dinner.  I got a new robe and Joe got some new work shirts plus a bunch of gift cards!

It was a really great day, very relaxing.  Everyone is really excited about the wedding!  Joe's parents are even throwing a little get together on Friday night to spend some extra time with out of town family.  Starting a 4pm today I'm off until January 14th and it's going to be all wedding all the time for the next few days!