Our 6th Christmas

Josh and I celebrated our 6th Christmas together this year.
That is so crazy to me.
We started dating in March of 2005...broke up for two months...got back together in May...broke up for four months...and started dating again in September. So, our first Christmas was celebrated in 2005.
Christmases with Josh have always been special. Our first was interesting because we were meeting each other's families. Our second was super special because that is when Josh proposed. Our third was exciting because we were getting married less than two months later. Our fourth was magical because it was our first as a married couple...and because my sister got engaged. Our fifth was fun because all of our siblings were married and the babies on each side were celebrating their first Christmases as married couples. Our sixth was memorable because it was nice and relaxing.
We went to Josh's parents' house on Christmas Eve and celebrated with his mom's side of the family, as well as his dad's parents. It was a lot of fun. We ate yummy Mexican food, played Pictionary and Wheel of Fortune for the Wii, and decorated gingerbread houses.
We went back to his parents' house on Christmas morning and opened gifts with his immediate family, plus his dad's parents. It's always so fun to see what people get and to see the reactions on their faces when they open their gifts. I was very excited to get a lot of wonderful gifts. Some handmade, others store bought...but all given with love.
We then headed to my parents' house and celebrated with my immediate family. We ate yummy breakfast and then opened our gifts. My sister and her hubby made everyone's gifts this year and they totally rock! We got a beautiful maple wood cutting board that my bro-in-law made, and my sister made the cutest hand towels with a pot holder attached...so you can use them to either pull stuff out of the oven or hang on your oven to use as a hand towel. We felt very spoiled after we got home and had to make many trips into the house to bring in our gifts.
We then got to relax at home for a couple of hours. Josh put together his computer, as he got some much needed parts as gifts...and I watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (my favorite, by far). Did I mention that my hubby bought me ALL of the Harry Potter movies for Christmas?? I was SO very excited about them! I now own all six in a nice boxed set. I can watch them whenever I want! It made me quite happy.
After that, we headed to the movie theater with some friends to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I was a little irritated that we HAD to see it in 3D (no theater in our area was showing the 2D version at all on Christmas Day), but it wasn't too bad. It just was an extra $3 per ticket I wish we didn't have to spend. But man...that movie was AMAZING! I think it was definitely my favorite movie of the series so far. I haven't read the book since I was in jr. high, but a lot of it came back to me as I watched the movie. It has such a powerful message and is FULL of Jesus. What a wonderful movie to watch on the day we celebrate His birth!
We then headed over to a friend's house to hang out with those we went to the movies with, as well as a couple of others (dot35 reunion. For those that don't know what that means...it's Josh and his three childhood best friends. There's more to the story than that, but that's the gist of it).
We got home about 11:45pm, after having been awake since 6:20am. It was a long, but wonderful day. I was very happy to have the relax time in the middle...as I was able to get a 20 minute nap in there.
It was, overall, one of the better Christmases that I can remember. Not stressful, not full of running here, there, and everywhere...just the right amount of time spent with family, time spent with friends, and time spent at home. I know every Christmas won't be like that...especially when we get pregnant...so I soaked up as much of this one as I could. I just wish I would have taken more pictures. I am getting really bad about that. And since our camera has dead pixels and we get a weird black spot in every picture, Josh hardly ever brings it anywhere anymore. Perhaps we will have to invest in a cheap point and shot camera for my birthday...
Anyway, I feel like I'm rambling and jumping all over the place...when the point of this post was to talk about our Christmas...and how it was our 6th one spent together. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by the ones you love!