Christmas!! (1 of 3)

Jeff and I are SO excited!  We get THREE Christmases this year!  THREE CHRISTMASES!!!  Can you even imagine anything more wonderful than that??  This morning we had our first of the three.  Jeff and I are flying to Texas tomorrow to spend a week with his family in Houston, and we don't have room to pack our presents for each other and take them with us so we had our own personal little Christmas together this morning.  And let me just tell you, I have the most wonderful, perfect husband in the whole world!  He put so much thought into every present he got me!  And he managed to get me quite a few of them with the budget we set!  

We woke up this morning at 6:30 and went out and got our stockings.  Jeff not only got me my favorite gum and candy, but also some cute Christmasy socks and one of those little rubbery animals that you put in water for a couple days and they grow 6x their size (I had just been telling him how cool I thought those were as a kid) AND 5 fantastic and romantic coupons.  He even got me a card!  Last Christmas, when Jeff and I had been dating for about 4 months, the card he sent me had a sweet but very short message and was signed "-Jeff", but in this one he wrote a meaningful message on all three panels of the card!  

The morning was off to a perfect start and after stockings, I made delicious chocolate chip pancakes for us, using the mini chocolate chips left over from the snowman cookies I made yesterday.  They were gooood!  We took a couple of pictures, but sadly I can't post them on here because Jeff insisted that I wear one of the presents I got him all morning -a little Mrs. Clause ensemble which he carefully picked out himself!  

Next, it was time for presents!  I had about 3x as many as Jeff did because he asked for models he could put together and I had to be sure and get him good ones so they were a little bit costly.  I got him a "Strike Eagle" plane and a '67 Corvette.  He's excited to put them together.  Jeff got me two books, both of which, I am SO excited to read: Water for Elephants and The Pillars of the Earth.  I LOVE to read and it's been a while since I've had the time to read anything outside of school assignments for a while!  He also got me a book of crossword puzzles, which I thoroughly enjoy and a GIANT Winnie the Pooh Coloring book and a box of 96 Crayola crayons WITH a built in sharpener! haha I know I'm such a big kid, but I tell Jeff all the time how excited I am to have kids so that I can color with them and do little crafts with them!  I've always LOVED to color and now I don't have to wait till I have kids!  When Jeff and I were at 

Wal-mart a while ago, I noticed a box of Knott's Berry Farm jams and told Jeff how especially the delicious orange-flavored one reminds me of my childhood and my Mamal making us toast with them at her house and how much I loved it.  They are SO good!  And guess what?  He went back and got them for me!  Yay!  And last, but not least, he got me a big box of 10 puzzles!  I also LOVE puzzles!  Obviously my husband knows me well! :)

It's been a wonderful first Christmas together as a married, couple and it's not even really Christmas yet!  We still have two to go!  We'll be in Houston with Jeff's family for the next week, for Christmas day and Jeff's birthday on the 28th (he gets three of those too!)  Apparently we're even going to have a little open house at his parents' on Saturday night since our reception was in California in August so we'll get even MORE attention and gifts!  We're just so spoiled!  I can't wait to spend some time with Jeff's family and meet his older brother Ben for the first time, along with his wife Caitlin and their ADORABLE baby girl, Bethany.  They just moved to Houston from Michigan.

On the 29th, we'll be heading to California for our 3rd Christmas with my family and my wonderful parents are spoiling Jeff and I even more by counting us both as kids in the family and getting us all kinds of gifts and they even got Jeff a GPS for his birthday, which, of course, I will get just as much use out of as he will!  Lucky me! :)  We'll be driving back up to Utah with my family on the 1st for Doug and Tricia's wedding on the 2nd.  And Jeff will be getting his third birthday celebration from me when we get back!  I've got all kinds of fun stuff planned!  I can't wait!  

The cute snowman cookies I made yesterday

This one was my favorite

I was kinda proud of them :)

Our lovely tree with all of the presents under it!  Jeff heard those sleds were on sale at Costco so he had our friend Matt pick them up for us (we don't have a Costco card) as a little extra surprise gift.

We set up our stockings last night in preparation for this morning.

We opened one present last night on "Christmas Eve".  Jeff's was a little wall basketball hoop and ball.

I went for one of my books: The Pillars of the Earth.  Even though it kinda looks like I'm about to cry, I was SO excited!  Can't wait to read it!!

Jeff had never heard of those super condensed washcloths that expand when you put them in water so I put one in his stocking.

Spiderman!

Me with all my glorious presents!

Jeff and his models

Note:  Further proof that Jeff is as wonderful a husband as I say he is: this morning he dusted and started the laundry while I was in the shower before church and just as I am finishing this blog, he just finished the dishes and is now vacuuming behind me.  What more could I ask for?? He's perfect!