Christmas 2013

I know.  My title is really original.  And I'm two whole days late.  I've actually been extremely busy, between housesitting, writing thank you notes, and the gym.  And last night, boyfriend got off of work a day early, so we holed up in the house I am watching and had a little pretend date night.  It was wonderful.

I will start off with my annual birthday photo.  Since my birthday is two days before Christmas, and all.  I have the same photo from the last 26 years.

I woke up bright eyed and cheery on Christmas Eve.  I don't know how, after a bedtime of 1am.  I got to the gym by 8 because I was meeting my friends for breakfast and I knew I had a bunch of things to get done before our annual Christmas Eve party began.  It's always so great to get a run and a lifting session in before your day begins. 

I hurried to breakfast with my three best friends.  Breakfast was perfect because, one, they paid for me, and two, what better way to refuel after a long night out and a tough workout than with eggs?

After too much money spent at Target and some good laughs, I made it home in time to shower and watch A Muppets Christmas Carole with my brother.  It's our tradition to watch that movie on Christmas Eve each year.  It was around the end of the movie that I got really tired and had to go lay down.  I ended up watching two episodes of Scandal instead of napping.  Whoops.  Before I knew it, it was time for me to get ready for our party.

We used to have a party each year at our land lord's house, before they moved to Hawaii.  My mom picked up the tradition and we have had crab and Christmas carols at our house each year since.  

This year, we also played Bunco, which is a fun dice game where everyone gets a White Elephant gift.  My sister, her husband, and I were more interested in the food, though.

After everyone left, we opened our Christmas pjs, but the bad blogger in me didn't get a picture.  Well, we have a picture, but my mother didn't upload it to Facebook, so I have yet to see it.  Most Christmas mornings, my brother and I have woken up at 4 or 5am to get started on the gift opening.  This year, however, we are true grown ups and slept until 8:30.  I actually woke up, looked at my phone and it was 7:40.  I decided to close my eyes for one more minute and then get up, but I looked at my phone again and it had been 40 minutes!  I couldn't believe it.  Santa brought me a Kindle Paperwhite, which I am so super excited about.  My brother recently bought himself a new camera for his film making, so Santa brought him some lenses.  Milo celebrated Christmas by giving me kisses.

No Christmas would be complete without a run, so I headed to my dad's to get on the treadmill.  We were supposed to be opening gifts with my sister and the baby at 11 and it was already 10, so I had to stick to the treadmill.  

They didn't end up showing up at 11, so I got a few extra minutes of running in.  I was having stomach troubles, so I stopped after 4.5 miles and started doing ab circuits in between miles.  

My dad and step mom got tired of waiting, so we opened our presents without the other half of the family.  

After presents were opened, I was starving.  So I made myself a different protein smoothie than usual in my dad's Ninja.  It was so nice using a blender that actually blends things rather than the $15 one I use every single other morning at home.

Christmas was a little different this year.  Rather than sitting around, waiting for dinner, my mom, boyfriend's mom, and boyfriend's brother all drove an hour south to visit boyfriend at his ambulance base.  We've never celebrated a normal Christmas morning together, since he has worked every Christmas Eve and Christmas we have been together.  So he begged us to come down and bring his gifts.  And his dog.

He's incredibly spoiled.  We spent an hour watching him unwrap all of his presents. 

We also opened Christmas poppers and got some awesome looking crowns.

While it is really sad not being able to celebrate holidays in the traditional way with him, I was glad that we got to go visit him for at least a little bit.  I am also so thankful for the first responders who work on the holidays to be there to save our lives.  I'm pretty lucky.

I got back just in time for family dinner.  Growing up, I would always spend Christmas Eve with my mom and Christmas night with my dad.  The tradition is still going, even though both my brother and I are older now and it wouldn't really matter who we spent what day with.  

And, of course, this little one experienced her first Christmas.  I can't wait until she's the age where Santa is magical and Christmas morning feels even more special.  

The rest of my Christmas was spent alone, at the house I am housesitting with the dog I am watching.  While I did feel a little lonely, it was nice to take a break from all of the people and curl up with my new Kindle and a cup of tea.  I am a true introvert, so I get my energy from being alone.  I felt revitalized the next day.

I hope everyone had a very magical, amazing, wonderful Christmas.  Or holiday, if Christmas isn't your thing.