First Married Christmas

For our first Christmas we were really excited and wanted to get a tree even though we would be celebrating Christmas with our families. We wanted to have some Christmas cheer to help us through the last projects of the semester and through finals. We were able to find a good deal on a little tree that we still use.

My parents gave us the ordaments that people had given to me over the years and few things they didn't want. Then we made a fruit loop garland and bought candy canes and chocolate balls and hung them on the tree and ate them throughout the season.

We wanted to spend Christmas day with my family and then fly out to Tennesee for most of the rest of Christmas break. We also wanted to come back a few days before the semester started to give us a chance to buy our books and restock the fridge. Well we couldn't get tickets early enough to give us a significant amount of time in Tennessee unless we flew out on Christmas. So we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my parents and then flew to Tennessee the rest of Christmas Day.

It was really warm in Utah that Christmas Eve. Instead of doing a typical winter activity like sledding we went biking down by Utah Lake because there was no snow.

We also opened several presents on Christmas eve to make sure there was enough time to open them all Christmas Day before Brian and I had to fly out. (Christmas takes a little longer at my parents house because we see what Santa brought us, then we take a break and feed the animals so they can enjoy Christmas too, before we open the rest of the presents).

That year my parents got us a camping tent as one of our main presents. We thought that was a good idea so we could go camping the next summer. After we opened presents we got on a plane to Tennessee. We made it to Knoxville by 11:30 that night. So technically we were in Utah and Tennessee on Christmas. We made it to Brian's mom's house a little after midnight. Brian's siblings weren't too happy about having Christmas almost a day late. So when we got there we opened presents right away.

Terry and Bob had also given us a really good gift that year. They bought us a tent.

We got a good laugh out of that one, but we were able to exchange it for some sleeping bags. Along with the camping gear Brian's siblings gave us we were all set to go camping.