This past weekend was such a nice break from our normal go-go-go pattern! We actually got to celebrate my 24th birthday, although I can’t believe I just wrote that… We were able to enjoy dinner with my parents on Friday night, a delicious birthday breakfast from my mom, lunch out thanks to Jersey Mike’s (YES FREE SUB!) and got the apartment to really feel like Christmas. The evening of my birthday was filled with a lovely time watching Christmas movies and Once Upon a Time and just relaxing with pizza amidst the glow of our first Christmas tree!

The biggest news of the weekend is that our tree is up and decorated!!! Although most of the ornaments on it are mine, Ryan and I bought our annual ornament this weekend and it’s so exciting to see the small collection beginning for us! I love thinking about where all of my ornaments came from and look forward to seeing more of our memories find their place on our tree. So far, TOC and Grey Cat have let it be, although Grey Cat is loving the fact that he now has somewhere else to hide behind… They’re also loving the new toys we got them because we were too impatient to hide and wrap them for Christmas day (yes, I give my pets gifts too!). My mother has already warned us that when we become parents (somewhere WAY down the line) we better get smarter about hiding presents!  

All you newlyweds out there, or even those of you who are still just the two of you, do you put all of your family’s Christmas presents under the tree, even if you don’t see them until their own celebration after Christmas morning?  I feel like the tree is so empty without our big family’s presents hanging out underneath! It makes us look crazy becuase there’s so many of them but it’s so much prettier, I think… Tell me what you do!  I’ve been wrapping presents like crazy and I think I’m just about caught up… Ryan also hung up Christmas lights we bought last year (ON CLEARANCE! Best way to do it, you guys!) so now the apartment is FULL of Christmas joy! Enjoy some of my iPhone pictures from the decorating process (and Ryan’s photos too!). I need to pull out my real camera and document the tree still… soon enough! 🙂 

XOXO,

Kristina