Christmas Cheer

This year's Christmas was full of new traditions and creativity. I really couldn't have asked for a better Christmas. It's amazing how every year it just seems to top the last. This year we started out the month going on a little mini vacation to San Francisco, CA. We had such a great time walking up and down the the many streets admiring the architecture. We were able to head over to Alcatraz and check out what was once know as "the Rock." I have to say if you plan to go to SF than it is a definite must see. It was so cool. I had my first taste of In and Out Burger too (sorry, still love Five Guys more), but this is a close second. Oh and of course we had a clam chowder bread bowl! So good and equally filling. They give you a huge bread bowl, fill it with chowder, top it off with the cut out bread top, and all the bread that once filled the bowl. What's crazy is that we had ice cream not long after this. Haha, oh well, we certainly did enough walking to burn it all off. Even got to see Mrs. Doubtfire's house.

Brian looking tough before heading to Alcatraz.

Standing in front of the crookedest street.

Mrs. Doudtfire's House

When we returned from our trip I couldn't believe that we only had two weeks until Christmas. This year was a little different. We've decided to try and split up the holidays for now with family. So last year we had Thanksgiving with Brian's family and Christmas with mine. This year we flip-flopped. However, Brian's mom who lives in Charlotte, NC decided to stay with us for Christmas and so we were able to all go over to my parents to exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. Then Brian and I with his mom had Christmas at our place for the first time. Now, ever since we found out that Santa wasn't real, my family has always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, so this was the first time in a long time that I actually opened gifts on Christmas day. And let me tell you it was so hard for me to wait. I swear sometimes I really do still feel like a kid. With all the anticipation about the next morning I hardly slept. But there is something quite wonderful about crawling out of bed and fumbling down the stairs to your own Christmas tree with presents. I was such a good girl this year too, I got way more than I even could have asked for. Brian said that one of his family traditions for Christmas dinner was to have homemade lasagna. So that is exactly what we did and it fed us all weekend with the amount of leftovers we had, haha. Here are a couple pictures out our decorations:

In all we had a very good year and I am looking forward to what 2011 will bring, especially a much needed trip to the great Northwest! Hope you all have a very happy new year too!