Holiday Hangover

OK, Christmas is over, it's that week in between. New Year's Eve has yet to arrive, I'm at work for 2.5 days this week, and most everyone else is off. I love these weeks. The office is quieter, I can run my errands during lunch break without all the crowds, and we get to dress casual, score!

Christmas was really nice. We left Boise the day after Christmas on a 10:30 a.m. flight, so we had to be up and at 'em to pack pretty early that morning. It was hard to leave, we had such a nice visit. Ben's mom surprised us all with pajamas on Christmas Eve to wear while we opened presents the next day. All the girls had matching tops, and so did the boys, and then we all had different holiday themed PJ pants.

Ben and I exchanged gifts before we left for Christmas, and I love when we do this! Since our condo has no fire place, we hang our stockings from the island in our kitchen, and stuff them with little treats. This year, I stuffed Ben's with: gum, dark chocolate, shampoo and vodka. He seemed to enjoy that. =)

Ben is also the king of creative Christmas tags, he likes to mix it up. I've always saved the one from our first Christmas together. We had been dating six months, and he got me a Ray Nitschke throw back jersey (a former Green Bay Packer great for all you non-NFL fans). I was so shocked, surprised and happy that this Vikings fan would go out on a limb to get me this jersey.

I've saved the tag from that gift, because I absolutely loved it. This was the first year Ben experienced my true love for the holiday season, so he kindly tagged that gift for "Miss Xmas." I've had that tag pinned on the fridge since that Christmas Day 2007. It even successfully made the move from my little apartment in Uptown, to our place when we moved in together.

This Christmas I added a special tag to go along side of that first Christmas tag that Ben created:

(Please ignore the "Jimmy is a Pyro" magnet as the child pictured sets a dollhouse on fire, that's another story)

I love the little things like these tags that remind me how happy I am to have such a great husband, and great family and friends during the holiday season! I hope you all had a great holiday and were able at least get a little extra time off from work.

Now, I need to cut back on my cookie in-take and start spending my gift cards!