christmas 2012 - a recap

Only 364 days until Christmas 2013!

But seriously, Christmas 2012 was amazing. Spending time with family is my favorite part of this holiday. That and seeing everyone's faces when they open gifts! I LOVE when I get it right and immediately see the joy on their face.

Christmas was extra special this year because it was the first year my nephew really got it. 

Viewing Christmas through a child's eyes makes it even better. I can't wait to have little ones of my own and start our own traditions with them.

Until we have little ones, I'll just have to settle for Mr. Bowden. It was his first Christmas and as you can see, he had a great time. Pooped out around 5pm.

My first Christmas Eve away from home was this year. It was definitely harder than I expected. We spent Christmas Eve and the morning with A's parent's in Lafayette and then drove to Houston to get in around 2pm. I am SO blessed that I get to spend the day with two amazing families, but it's bittersweet. 

I spend 23 Christmas Eve nights with my siblings and parents. Church around 7, then home to open one present. Santa would come and we would wake up to cinnamon rolls in the morning. Not a huge shebang, but 23 years of doing the same thing makes it pretty special.

This year we spent Christmas Eve at A's parent's house. Mass at 4 and then home to eat and play board games. I made everyone Lasagna Soup and then we enjoyed some Apples to Apples and Taboo. A fun night for sure!

So, this is our new tradition for now. We're having fun thinking of we would like OUR tradition to be. Merging his and hers and making it ours and only ours. I'm pretty excited about that.

I'll leave you with a few more scenes from last night - can you tell that I'm having fun with our new iMac? Also, I got the Creative Suite and I'm having too much fun playing around with Photoshop again. I used it daily in college, but haven't much since. It's like riding a bike...but harder. Might take me a while to get the finished products looking good!