Christmas Has Come and Gone

I'm pretty much like a 6 year old when it comes to Christmas. I absolutely cannot wait for it. I countdown the days, hours, and minutes. Often times, I cannot sleep well starting a week or two before. I get this from my mother! But the best part is buying gifts for everyone. I'm not the kind of person who shops and sees a sweater and thinks, "Oh... I think my mother would like this!" I have to carefully plan out thoughtful gifts for everyone! And for those who hurt my brain trying to think of something creative, I get them a creative gift card! There's nothing wrong with that, right? This year I was excited about two gifts specifically. One was for my mom and the other for my husband.

First, on Christmas morning my husband and I exchanged gifts. I was most excited about giving him this, an antiqued copper and brass fire extinguisher. He is a firefighter, and I have been searching for some antique that expresses this aspect of his life. Last year I was determined to get one, but these things go for $50-$200 on ebay. I was lucky to find one three or so months ago at a yard sale!! So I've had to keep this secret the whole time. It was a relief to see him finally open it and love it!



That afternoon, we had Christmas with my parents and brother. For my mom's gift, I had been searching for this certain ornament for years. Her first Christmas with my dad was in 1982, and they had the "Our First Christmas Together 1982" ornament. A few years ago, she was getting it out of storage to put it on the tree and discovered it was broken. I only remember her crying a maximum of five times in my life, and this was one of them. I made it my mission to find another one! A week or two before Christmas, I found it on Ebay. I kept getting outbid, and after I put in a max bid of $40.02 and was quickly outbid, I tweeted about my despair! A follower recommended hlmarklady.com to me. This lady has pretty much every Hallmark collectible since the beginning of time for sale! She had one left, so I quickly sent the money through Paypal and almost cried when it arrived. Mom loved it, of course.... and couldn't believe I found it! It was a lot of work but completely worth it!



I also made her this typewriter key necklace which I was so excited about:



Here I am with my Cricut Expression, a gift from my husband. I had this one figured out by the shape of the box! I was so excited because it was on my top three list of things I wanted for Christmas!



He also completely surprised me with another item from my top three list, an iPod touch! Here I am trying not to cry.



And here is my crazy jumping cat trying to help unwrap the fire extinguisher.



I hope everyone had a lovely holiday season and has a great New Years Eve tonight!! Colton and I are staying in and spending time with each other, since we don't get to do that very much!