If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know that James and I are basically a couple of 5-year-olds when it comes to exchanging gifts! I think the first year we were together we actually opened gifts appropriately on the holiday they were intended for, but after that all hell broke loose. haha. The second one of us picked up a gift for the other – we just HAD to give it to them right away!! It’s funny, because I think we both look forward to exchanging gifts because we love GIVING them more than receiving! So every Christmas that I can remember James and I haven’t even wrapped our gifts for each other – we just hand it over in the bag or box it came in as soon as we get it home!
(I know, we’re terrible.)
But this year, we somehow decided we would hold off and actually WRAP our gifts for each other and do our best to wait until Christmas (or close to it anyway) to open them all at once! I went out and bought extra pretty wrapping supplies so that once they were wrapped I wouldn’t want to ruin the pretty paper by opening them, and it actually worked!! We made it all the way until December 20th before we opened our gifts!! (Well, technically earlier, but that’s because James didn’t know how to wrap the hula hoop he got for me, so he gave that to me the day he got it, and then I felt like he should have one gift too – so he opened one. LOL. But for the most part – we waited!)
Anyway, James was sick with the flu for the last week and finally was back to himself this past Saturday (thank goodness!), so we decided to celebrate by going out to dinner and coming home to exchange gifts!! I decided to mark the occasion by actually taking out our real camera and taking some photos, instead of just blurry cell phone snaps and I’m pretty happy I did! I think I may need to leave my real camera sitting out more often so I can grab it whenever I want to snap a pic. Our whole lives documented in grainy cell phone pictures is just not okay!
So here is our Tyler Family Christmas celebration – complete with a tasty dinner out, margaritas, perhaps a little tequila when we got back home, and lots of love & presents! (Oh, and Chloe loved this new tradition too! She insisted on helping us open gifts and it was pretty hilarious.) But enough chatter – on to the photos!
Our fabulous couple, Chris & Kelly, got us the two ornaments below!! I love them!
Each ornament on our tree has a special meaning to me, so each year when I pull them out to decorate the tree they remind me of where I got it, and I love that way more than I could ever love a perfectly coordinated one-color-scheme tree!
Back from dinner and on to the self-timer attempts of the night! First I had to test the light on these two cuties, and then I jumped in the picture (completely throwing Chloe off apparently because she couldn’t help but look up at me). lol
We tried again, and Chloe was still mama obsessed! haha! We decided to give up and just do a kissing picture, and naturally Chloe wanted in on that too. LOL
Then we said – okay forget it – let’s do one without Chloe, and but of course… she wandered right into the frame at the most inopportune time. ha! We tried again and this time she decided to bring us her bone right as the camera snapped! Ohhhhh pup pup… haha.
I gave up and decided to take pictures of this cutie by herself.
Then we got to opening presents, and Chloe wanted in! She was IN OUR FACE whenever we were opening, and so we finally gave her some of the wrapping paper and WHOA – she went to town tearing it into tiny little pieces!! ha! What a lunatic! (Those few pics were from my cell phone, if you can’t tell from the blur!)
By the end of the opening she was so tired from all the paper tearing that she gave in and let us put a ribbon on her. Awww… haha.
But a bow on it, Chloe! 😉
And with that – we wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and the best of holidays (whatever you may or may not celebrate)! We are taking the rest of the week off to enjoy time with family and friends and will be back next Monday with lots of fabulous year-end posts (some of my favorite)!
Love to you all!!! XOXO