Celebrating Christmas 2008 (part 1)

Haven't been around lately...I'm sure some of you knew the reasons, and for those who were unaware, you will know as you read along! :).

Anyway, our christmas preparations was tough and both I and hubby were so much in pressure to beat the deadline for only 10 days to complete everything before Christmas day!

Honestly, we didn't have any rest coming home from our 8-day trip in California, Nevada and Arizona respectively. We arrived back home on Dec. 13, and completely settled down morning of Dec. 14, and catched up for church in the afternoon, still on our jet lags. We still didn't have any single christmas decor at home...not even the tree was up, not started our christmas shopping for gifts, etc...

Monday (December 15), I started to get panicky, hubby had to go work, (he had tough day there), and the house turned into a mess for all the preps I did, while we decided to shop nightime, and the weekend. (Thank God, all was done smoothly).

Our gift wrapping session was done separately. (I did mine upstairs, and hubby did his own down the basement). I couldn't join him since he said he'll be wrapping things for me :). Our wrappings were completely done exactly at Christmas eve! Yey! at least we beat the deadline! LOL!

The next day was exciting. I woke up 11:30am and hubby said it's time to open gifts! As usual, excitement comes with me at this time of the year :). We usually start it with a brief bible devotions and prayer before opening our gifts.

The Gifts:
I gave 12 gifts for hubby...(thank God, he loved all of them :)). And I had 13 gifts from him. Usually, the first part of the day is I and hubby taking turns in opening our gifts under our tree at home. The second part will be a traditional Christmas dinner at mom's house after which we take turns in opening our gifts as well. Both I and hubby gave 22 gifts for mom, George and Jesse. They are giving us many presents every Christmas as well which make most of our day exciting!

I received 12 gifts from mom, 8 gifts from George, 1 from Jesse plus gifts from hubby... It's more than 30 gifts!!!!Overwhelming, isn't it? That's how Christmas is in the family! The fact that shopping for clothes is getting expensive nowadays, it's as good as I had shopped for clothes for the whole year! ...all gifts! at no extra cost!

Thanks a lot mom and George!

Hope you had all the merriest Christmas ever! HAPPY NEW YEAR one and all!