Very Merry Marathon.

And no, I certainly don't mean the running kind, though I'm sure you knew that already since I'm not exactly the running type. Christmas was quite the marathon this year but it was SO much fun! The celebrations started on Thursday (the 22nd) when Mom took Tara and I to get manicures and then we met up with Grammi and Apanda for tea at the Queen Mary tea room. What a great place!


We each had a different kind of tea in our own teapot and then shared towers of treats!! We had mini quiches and cookies and cakes and fruit and finger sandwiches and it was absolutely delightful.

Steven was at work that day but we decided to open a couple of gifts when he got home that evening. It was sort of our "Christmas Eve" since we were planning to do our Christmas with just the two of us the following morning so we figured it would be okay if we opened a couple of gifts early. We each gave each other one and then together we opened a present from Steven's aunt and uncle and another from our dear friend Hilde.

Steven and I were so excited to give each other the presents we'd purchased that we could hardly sleep!

Here we are Christmas morning!! Haha! We had started waking up around 5am -- like little kids who can't wait a moment longer to open presents! We managed to stay in bed until 7:30 and then we made hot chocolate and started opening the dozen or so gifts we exchanged.

We got each other so many fun things! Books and DVDs and new jackets and cookbooks and a snuggie and cookies and pretty much just everything. Steven bought me a DVD with Mickey's Christmas Carol on it so we cozied up on the couch with all the presents and gift wrap strewn about and watched it together.

Continuing a tradition that we started last year, we went out to breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. It's such a great way to relax and do something special just the two of us before of the family chaos begins. We went to The Kettle in Enumclaw. It's a really popular restaurant that serves HUGE portions. We split a scramble, waffle and muffin and still had enough food left over for a big breakfast on Saturday morning!

We spent the rest of the day celebrating with my mom and sisters.

First the Christmas Eve service at church and then home for a dinner of salmon and wild rice (and rum slush!!) and then since Santa stopped by while we were at church (quite the Christmas miracle) we opened stockings (a new experience for Steven) and loads of gifts!

My mom bought Steven the Band of Brothers series on DVD. I think that might have been the most successful gift given this year. He carried it around all night. I got an ice cream maker and Mom also got us a gift card to The Triple Door, which I think will be a super fun date!

Following the gift opening, Mom and Tara and I piled on the couch to watch the Disney Christmas Sing-a-long. We used to have the old VHS version of it and I bought Mom this DVD -- I mean, Santa put it in Mom's stocking last year. It has some new songs and weird narration in between the normal old songs but we had fun with it anyway. Definitely laughed a lot trying to relearn the Toy Soldier song.

A little time for a few games of Ticket to Ride and then home for a good night's sleep before the craziness of Christmas day.

Christmas morning we were up bright and early and off to Steven's parents house for breakfast and presents. So early in fact that no one else was awake and we set off the alarm, which wouldn't have been that big of a deal if someone had told Steven the new alarm code when they changed it recently :) oops! Merry Christmas everybody! Time to get up!! We enjoyed a pancake breakfast with them and then opened loads more gifts. Including two more sets of movie tickets, a gift card to The Taproot Theatre, a gift card to an Italian restaurant in Tacoma and a new board game called Puerto Rico.

We took a few minutes to watch the Disney/Pixar short Prep and Landing -- Love it!! -- and then we were off to Papa and Grammi's to join the rest of the Parducci/Sodoma family.

They had already started opening gifts but we arrived just in time to see Tara get her periodic table of elements poster -- haha! My sister is such a nerd! I love it!!!!

I like to accessorize.

After gifts had been opened and we had been eating cookies and snacks for hours and hours, it was time to chill out a bit. Tara, Michael and Danny and I played a game of Bang. Steven went with my uncles to try to move a tree stump in Uncle Scott's yard and when they found that it couldn't be moved, ended up going Christmas-light-looking instead :) haha! I guess there was a house with a big Seahawks thing that Uncle Barry wanted to show them. Steven and the girls started learning the new Puerto Rico game and I helped Grammi in the kitchen -- making the gravy and eating turkey.

We ate a huge dinner, sat around for a bit, ate some cake and then started some pretty awesome games of Catch Phrase and Holiday Charades. These games with my family get incredibly noisy but are so so so much fun!! We laughed and yelled and played until 11pm. Steven and I were absolutely exhausted by the time we got home. So exhausted in fact that we didn't even leave the house the following day. We woke up, warmed up our leftovers from Christmas Eve and ate breakfast in bed while watching Despicable Me. It was a much needed lazy day and we pretty much just enjoyed all of our new gifts and the leftover Christmas munchies.

Monday we met up with my dad and his family for dinner at Maggianos and, yes, more gift opening. Phew! And that was the last of our Christmas celebrating. Steven was back at work this morning. It was a really fabulous first Christmas together though and we really just had the best time ever. We were so blessed that Steven had the whole weekend off like that. We know that it's probably not going to happen every year.

p.s. the weather people are predicting snow for tomorrow! Who knows, we might have a white New Years :)