Well, hello there!  My name’s Catherine.  I used to blog regularly, but then I took a few weeks off for Christmas.  You may or may not remember me.  😉  Now that the busyness of the season is (mostly) behind us, I have returned.

Here’s a Christmas photo of my beautiful family, plus a recap of our Christmas week (yes, when you’re married with two sets of divorced parents, Christmas lasts a whole week) :

 

This was the first year that we coordinated rather than matched our outfits for the Christmas card photo.  It was a huge step for our family, but I think the result looked great!

 

The decorations and presents:

   

I love decorating the mantle and making wreaths!  I am especially proud of this Christmas wreath. 🙂  Andrew had the ornament made with our wedding date for me last Christmas, and I love it.

The weekend before Christmas, my mom’s side of the family came in town for a big Christmas lunch.  It was great to see everyone, catch-up on life, and eat until we were too full. 🙂

That weekend we also looked at a few houses on the Tacky Light Tour.  I don’t know how common this is, but it’s a big deal in Richmond.  People love their tacky lights!

Also, my nieces are the funniest people in the world.  As soon as we buckled our seat belts (yes, I am in the back middle seat between two car seats–perk of being petite?) Lauren (4) put her hand on mine and said, “Okay.  So, let’s talk about Disney World.  Do you want to hear what my favorite rides were?”  They went to Disney World earlier in December, and she wanted to talk about it every time there was a pause in conversation.  Money well-spent, sis.  😀

We spent Christmas Eve with Andrew’s mom and sister.  Unnaturally, I didn’t take any pictures.  We opened presents, ate dinner, and attended an awesome Christmas Eve service at our church.

On actual Christmas day we were with Andrew’s dad.  His apartment complex is adjacent to a nice park, so after opening presents and eating, Andrew, Jenny, and I took a much-needed walk!

We had a Dumb and Dumber moment during the walk.  The temperature was approximately 20 degrees, and I’d forgotten gloves.  Throughout the walk I was trying to tuck my hands in my sleeves, blowing on them to make them warm, sticking them in Andrew’s gloves etc.  After we’d been walking for, oh, 30 minutes, Andrew said, “Do you want my extra gloves?”  You’ve had extra gloves this whole time?? 😀

 The day after Christmas Andrew and I drove down to Raleigh to do Christmas with my family–first my mom, then my dad, aunt, and uncle.  Again, I wish I’d taken more photos, but I do have a few:

Lauren helping my mom open a present 🙂

There is never a dull moment with my family; we laughed a lot, exchanged a few funny re-gifts, and just enjoyed being together!  Also, I must give a shout out to my sister, Whitney, for cooking some really delicious dinners while we were there;  I wanted to take photos, but the practice of taking food photos was ridiculed prior to my doing so. 🙂

On Friday, my dad, aunt, and uncle drove up to Raleigh from Atlanta, and we celebrated Christmas all over again.

My dad and Lauren reading a book 🙂

On Friday night, some of the crew drove to Chapel Hill to see our beloved Tar Heels play basketball!  Andrew was not a UNC fan before we started dating, but he sure does look good in Carolina blue!

On Saturday morning, Andrew and I went running with Aunt Ann, which has become a great tradition whenever we are together in Raleigh!  After a lot of sitting around and visiting, it felt good to get outside and move.

It was tough to say goodbye everyone, but we enjoyed the time together while we could!

And finally, a tradition that Andrew already hates doesn’t love but one day will appreciate, the second annual Christmas morning photo:

Merry Christmas!

How did you celebrate this year?