Christmas Day 2012

I love Christmas SO much. I just love seeing people's faces when they open a gift from me, spending time with family, and eating way too much great food. Every year Christmas gets better and better for me because each year I seem to understand the weight of Jesus' birth more. I hope that every Christmas I gain just a little bit more understanding.

I thought it was funny - every year I've been the one to get up early on Christmas morning. One year when I was really little I woke my parents up around 5:30 - ha! But this year my parents actually woke me up to open presents around 9.

This is what I found when I came downstairs.....

I got lots of fun presents!

Opening a really neat makeup palette that might have been my favorite gift.

I love anything Paris!

And I got some new luggage! I've never had any real luggage - just duffel bags. It came with 4 different pieces, and I think I'm going to get a lot of use out of it coming up. This makes me want to travel even more now :)

I'm obsessed with this new apron too. There was nothing wrong with my old Vera Bradley one, but when I saw this online I knew it had to go on my Christmas list. It has a cute bow on it, it's monogrammed with my name, and the icing part of the cupcake is a Paris print with little Eiffel Towers on it. 100% ME!

We had our annual egg casserole for breakfast, and then we stopped and visited my Grandpa.

In the afternoon we headed to my Grandma's house to celebrate Christmas with my dad's side of the family.

All the presents....

We were laughing because we always take family pictures at Christmas, but then we never actually do anything with them. Oh well!

I love this one of my parents and I though!

All the grandkids with my Grandma!

A picture of my cousins, aunt, and uncle.....

.....and then another with the boyfriends - ha!

And since my cousin Erin got married this year, they had to get their own family picture :)

Hannah and I

I look at this picture and laugh SO hard. The adults do a gift exchange every year where they pick someone else at Thanksgiving and then get them a present for Christmas. Well, on Thanksgiving, Max (my cousin's boyfriend) was joking that since he doesn't have a lot of money whoever he got would just get macaroni art. He ended up getting Mike (my other cousin's boyfriend), so he did get him macaroni art (as well as a real gift). This is a macaroni Jesus Christ (hence the JC and cross in the corners). He also made a macaroni necklace and bracelet that Mike actually wore the whole night. We're thinking of making a new rule next year where everyone has to make something for whoever they get. Next year will also be my first year in the adult exchange too!

The rest of the night was spent eating dinner, joking around with my cousins, and playing Apples to Apples. I just love my family so much, and I always look forward to our get-togethers.

I came home and put all of my presents under the tree and realized just how lucky I am. Not only for the great physical gifts I received, but also the gifts of friends and family that become so apparent to me this time of year.

I've come to the conclusion that I am a lucky girl, and I have nothing to complain about. I'm so thankful that I am able to face each new day because Jesus was born 2,000 years ago.