Our First (and a Half) Christmas!

Even though this was Kevin's and my second Christmas together, we had only been dating for about ten minutes last year and everything was just a whirlwind of craziness as I was getting to know his family and planning to introduce him to the kids.

But this year was much calmer by comparison... and our first official Christmas as a family!

We had already taken Taylor and my mom their gifts earlier in the week, and so Christmas morning was just me, Kevin, and Riley.

Even though it was not a white Christmas (except for Penny), we were determined to make it a great one anyway :)

Kevin and I knew it was going to be hard to top the guitar we gave Riley the other night, but we still had plenty more presents for her. And a few for each other.

Kevin let Riley get the new Slipknot CD out of the way first: It was the only gift she had any idea about, given its obvious shape and the fact that she had not asked for any other music :)

She had also asked for a murder mystery game, so Kevin and I each got her one:

Next, we had Riley open "the goat":

I love Kevin's smile here so much! He's laughing because he has waited for weeks now to tell Riley the story of how he blatantly kept leading her all over Barnes & Noble to distract her while I made dash after dash to the cash register each time I found something else I knew she would like. (And I managed to surprise him with the giant piranha plant as well!)

We're still a few days away from the one year anniversary of the day Kevin and Riley met, but he's already the best dad she has ever had. So I got him this magnet:

Aww Man, Clothes?!

Kevin got Riley this Un Deux Trois Cat shirt, while I went in a slightly different direction:

I got Kevin a shirt too:

...And a hedgehog, which he says his sister and his cousin Michela will appreciate :)

Kevin got me a lovely set of personalized bee coasters:

I got him a few avocados, since he's obsessed with the $250 Riley-sized avocado plushie at Squishables in the Willow Grove Mall...

And he got me a chair for my desk in the living room (and also another chair with a matching ottoman for my side of the bedroom, but those have not arrived yet):

Kevin's parents surprised us and stopped by for a few minutes because they hadn't seen the apartment yet.

And then, it was time for me to get started on Christmas dinner: Glazed ham with roasted pineapple rings, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, crescent rolls, and candied pecans!

After dinner, we watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and just lounged around enjoying the evening together as a family :)

We wish all of our loved ones a very merry Christmas!