It's a Merry Merry Christmas

Besides the obvious meaning behind Christmas, Chris and I haven't really taken to the retail side of the holiday. Over the last few months we have really tried to focus more on the important things in life and their meanings. I guess that's why Christmas shopping seemed to just sneak by us this year.
Our first Christmas when we had just gotten married was the only Christmas we really got each other any gifts. We went all out and got each other a bounty of presents. Since then, things have really sizzled out. Mostly due to the fact we weren't much in a situation to do a big Christmas but this year has been the strangest by far. We didn't really talk much about it and we just had some kind of silent agreement there would be no present giving to each other this year, which made things kind of interesting.
The Egbert's (Chris' family) always rotate names in the family and my family just recently started drawing names. Both families decided to do only home made gifts this year which made it kind of fun seeing we had to get a little creative with our gift giving. We enjoyed making the gifts for our families and it was a different feeling this year for Christmas.

Although we decided not to get each other anything- our parents and Santa (my mom insists) did get us some great gifts this year. Dianne- Chris' mom- painted us a beautiful painting that I am so excited to hang up, we also received books and handmade jewelry which I am always happy to receive.
Among that we also got great gifts from Santa- Chris got a Kindle which I was so excited for him (mostly so I don't have to spend an hour wandering around the bookstore pretending not to be bored) I've hardly seen him set it down since he ripped the package open almost immediately after unwrapping it.

I got a new digital camera which is great because now I can post pictures again!

We also got gift cards so we can both go get new work clothes and many other wonderful gifts!
Even the dogs got gifts from Santa- Zira got a new bed which hasn't even been destroyed yet by Nico (give it time) and they got bags of new toys which we hoped wouldnt be immediately mamed but... as Nico can prove time and time again, nothing is too strong to withstand the determination of a dog....

Thanks Santa for all our excellent gifts we feel so blessed to always have more than we really need!