Christmas Fun, Just the Two of Us

I love Christmas time and cannot believe it has already come and gone again. Matthew and I enjoyed our first Christmas as Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Grant, just the two of us this year! Even though we missed being in the same place at the same time as our family and friends, webcam chats helped remedy that!

The Grant Family

Christmas Eve: On Christmas Eve Matthew worked half the day from home while I began cooking our Christmas dinner. In year's past my mom and I would cook an extravagant meal together on Christmas Eve but since this was my first solo flight, I picked some fairly simple items. The menu was thyme and honey glazed spiral cut ham, sauteed green beans with portobello mushrooms and almonds, sour cream mashed potatoes and butt rolls. Creme brulee and coffee came later that evening for dessert.

The spread. Since Blessing cannot have wine and I wanted to use the wine glasses---we had fruit punch kool aid instead!

That night we opened our stockings from each other and had a webcam chat with my parents and her family in Memphis, TN---it was fun seeing everyone on camera!

Christmas Day: I could hardly wait for Matthew to wake up because I was so excited about his present! I did good and resisted the temptation to wake him up at 6 AM!!! We made some lattes with the expresso beans Matthew gave me in my stocking and then.....OPENED PRESENTS!!!! We opened gifts from everyone but his parents since we planned to open on webcam with his parents, sister (plus family) and grandmother. Every single gift was special, thoughtful and completely wonderful. "Blessing" even got some gifts!

Piper got a gift from Mommy and Daddy too! She helped open it!

THEN---the moment came when Matthew opened his gift :) tickets to the Washington Capitals vs. New Jersey Devils (NHL) game the next evening!! He LOVES hockey and has not had a chance to attend one yet!

Da Caps tickets

A breakfast of stuffed french toast with cinnamon syurup and bacon concluded the morning. The french toast was stuffed with cream cheese, chocolate chips, bananas, a splash of OJ and a dash of sugar. It was RICH but sooo divine!


That evening we opened gifts via webcam with Matthew's parents, sister (Kimberly), brother-in-law (Tim), niece (LC) and grandmother. It was almost like we were there!! Matthew said watching LC opening gifts made him even more ready for "Blessing" to be here :) I love kids at Christmas---they are almost more interested in the packaging than the gift!! We decided next Christmas we are wrapping newspaper and empty boxes as gifts for the baby. "Blessing" got its first set of Southern Miss attire during this time

Christmas Continues on December 26: On Saturday, we headed downtown to see the National Christmas tree and the state trees. Each state has their own tree. We took pictures of all the trees representing states we have lived in (Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia).
One moment of excitement as we took a photo of the National Christmas Tree with the White House in the background---we saw a sniper on top of the White House!!



THEN we continued onto the hockey game!!! Although our seats were pretty high up in the arena, there are truly no bad seats in the house. It was a good game and we were pleased when the Caps won 4 to 1! The game was so much fun we decided we will be attending more!!!

Christmas was wonderful with the just the two of us but we are both looking forward to our first Christmas at home with "Blessing" next year!!!!

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