Christmas!!

Oh my goodness, how is Christmas over already?!  This month has seriously flown by. 

Earlier this month I flew to CA for a few days to surprise my brother for his 40th birthday!!  It was SUCH a quick trip, especially since I still had to work because I'm completely out of PTO for this year!  But my boss was nice enough to let me switch around some work-from-home days, and she was totally ok with me heading to CA to be there to surprise my dear brother.  I got in very late Wednesday night (I left after work), and then I had to work on Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday we had a surprise party for Brad!!  And then I left very early Sunday morning.  It was a whirlwind trip!!  Trips to CA always go by way too quickly, but this one was wayyyyyy faster than any other trip!! 

The night of the 22nd (Saturday) we hosted a party at our house, so that whole day we were cleaning and prepping for that.  We were exhausted by the time the party started!!  It was a really fun time though, and it was really great to have people over to our house for Christmas!!  We've never done that before!! 

Sunday (the 23rd) during the day I did a bunch of Christmas baking (3 kinds of cookies, plus fudge), and Kevin met up with his friend from high school that lives in L.A. now, and he was just home for the first time this year!  Sunday night Kevin and I got to hang out at home together, so we watched It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street (the old one, NOT the new one... I can't stand the new one, but the old one is one of my favorite Christmas movies!!).  Kevin and I had not seen It's a Wonderful Life in sooo many years, and we both really loved it this time around.  It was SO great!!  I feel like I never appreciated it when I was younger... Maybe it's one of those that you have to be a bit older to fully appreciate. We also made some pasta and homemade alfredo, and had a lovely evening of relaxing in front of the fire while watching movies :)  It was perfect! I'm so happy we got some time for us. 

Christmas Eve Kevin and I both had to work all day, but after work we drove over to Kevin's parents house and spent the evening there hanging out with Kevin's family.  Christmas morning we were able to just hang out at home and have a nice relaxing morning.  We made cinnamon rolls for breakfast!

We have watched a LOT of Christmas movies!! Here's our list:  Scrooged, Bad Santa, The Grinch (Jim Carrey version), The Grinch (old cartoon version), Santa Clause is Coming to Town, The Year Without a Santa Clause, Rudolph, Frosty, Elf, National Lampoons Christmas, Muppet Christmas Carol, Mickey's Christmas Carol, Die Hard (it counts!!), Love Actually, Prep and Landing (thanks Lizzy and Claighton!!), The Man Who Invented Christmas (it was pretty good!), Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, The Holiday, Home Alone 1 and 2, and Charlie Brown Christmas. That's 23 movies!! 

I was terrible about taking pictures, so I'm sorry this post is picture-free!  This weekend we're going to Longwood Gardens to see the lights, so I'll take pictures of that!!  And I'll do the Bucket List update too :)  Love you guys!!!