A Siddoway Christmas

Christmas this year was spent with Paul's family. It was very enjoyable. Last time we were with his family, me, along with his Dad and a niece or two had some sort of stomach bug all of Christmas Eve day. I remember only having the appetite to nibble on some green jello. So being able to enjoy everything this time around was great!

Totally forgot the camera, but Paul snapped some pictures for us. Mostly of his nieces. Because let's be real, gatherings with families are usually about the little ones.

I had to work on Christmas Eve until the early afternoon. Paul had about 8 paid vacation days he "had" to use before the end of the year or else he would just lose them so he took about 2 weeks off around the holidays! No fair. I had a list of projects for him to do so I guess it turned out ok. And he thought he was going to just be able to relax the whole time. . muahahaha.

Anyways, when I got off we packed up the presents and headed to his parents. We helped prep stuff and then had a tasty dinner full of mashed potatoes, ham, jello wreaths, rolls, etc. You get the idea. Here are some pictures that were snapped during the occasion:

Elena. . . so full of personality.

Looking pretty, like usual!

The whole reason for this picture is Camilla's AWESOME face on the right. I'm dying laughing.

After dinner we of course did the Nativity play! Paul and I were Mary and Joseph. I fit the part pretty well being great with child and all. . . The nieces were the angels. Brothers in law David and Alvaro and Dad Siddoway were the shepards/wise men.

It was really fun to do the nativity with his family. We would stop and sing hymns during the story and I really enjoyed it. Really brought to light again the true meaning of celebrating this holiday.

Aaaand those are pretty much all the pictures I took. Pathetic, I know.

After the Nativity we had a wonderful Norwegian dessert that is like rice pudding and really really REALLY good. Paul's Dad served his mission in Norway so he grew up having it and we've had it a few times and it is so tasty! It's tradition to put an almond in the batch and whoever has the almond in their bowl while eating gets a prize. Paul's dad made sure to put one in each of the little girls' bowls. But they were all so excited/full that they didn't really even finish. Ha ha it was funny.

The girls went home and Paul, his brother David and sister Janet and I all went up and watched a non-Christmas movie. I guess that's another tradition of theirs that started who knows when. . so we watched "Pirates! A Band of Misfits". One of the most hilarious cartoons I've seen.

Paul and I then headed home. It was our first Christmas Eve night on our own! We planned on going back to his parents late the next morning. We decided to do our own gifts for each other and the ones from my family that morning with just the two of us. We didn't own any stockings (I bought some the day after Christmas)  so we unceremoniously exchanged our stocking stuffers in the plastic grocery bags we bought them in. Ha ha. It was really fun to have just the two of us and I'm not going to lie, even though I love spending holidays with family, I'm excited to start doing our own family holiday traditions.

We headed back to his parents for the rest of gift opening and just relaxed. His parents were very generous and got us a crib for the little nugget. After the festivities wound down we headed back up to our place and his parents followed to help set it up. We then went and saw the movie "Saving Mr. Banks". It was good, but I wasn't blown away by it. . .there were plenty of good parts but it's not a movie I'll ever think about buying.

That was pretty much our Christmas! It was a great holiday and I am so blessed to have married into such a wonderful family. We really enjoyed the holiday.