Merry Christmas everyone! Praying you all had a special day. I know for many of us, this Christmas looked different, but I hope you were able to make the best of your circumstances. I for one, was able to enjoy a rather pleasant day with my parents and grandparents. We woke up and read the story of Christ’s birth right off the bat. We actually had a refreshing discussion about His birth and boy are we truly grateful that He came to this earth to be our Savior!
We then proceeded to open our stockings. In my family, we have always opened the stockings first and then moved onto the gifts. I am sure this is pretty typical for most people. However, my question is, who gets to open presents first in your house? We usually have always gone by age in my family – youngest to oldest. We enjoy taking turns opening gifts, it takes a lot of patience at times, but it is definitely is worth it. 🙂
After the stockings were opened, we then moved on to all of the presents. This year, my dad somehow made out like a bandit with his goodies! Haha! My mom apparently forgot how many presents she bought him. Although, this seems to be a recurring theme each year… Either way, we all enjoyed our gifts. I for one, was really excited because among all of my gifts, my two absolute favorites were the Apple AirPods Pro (I seriously love them so far) as well as, a long weekend at the Sunriver Lodge for later next month and I cannot wait!
Side-note: If you’ve never been to Sunriver, or Oregon for that matter, give Sunriver a visit. It is seriously such a fun little place with so many activities year round and incredibly gorgeous landscapes as it is nestled in Oregons desert. (Did you realize Oregon had a desert? Cool, huh?)
Anyway, after presents, we all enjoyed some really yummy cinnamon rolls that I made from scratch. They got high praises and were really fun to make actually. I made the dough the night before so that it would rise and then in the morning I made the filling, rolled the cinnamon rolls and placed them in the oven as we were opening up the last of the presents. I finished them off with a cream cheese frosting and it was oozy, yummy goodness! You should seriously give them a try. I found the recipe on Pinterest so I will link them below.
Once we finished the cinnamon rolls, you better believe we started playing games! My grandparents actually brought a new game for all of us to play called Wizard. If you have never played this game and you enjoy card games, please do yourself a favor and buy it! It is seriously so fun, we literally played it all day. Of course, playing games all day makes you a bit hungry, so I decided to whip up a Charcuterie board (the adult lunchable).
After playing a few more rounds of Wizard, it was time for dinner. My dad made a delicious prime rib that makes your mouth water just thinking about it. My mom made twice-baked potatoes, green bean casserole (my favorite) along with some brussel sprouts and dinner rolls. It was a very nice meal, for which I am very thankful. We of course, finished off the the night with pecan pie, New York cheesecake, games, and a movie.
I am truly so grateful for the family that I have and even though we were unable to have all of the family around this year, we were able to celebrate the birth of our Savior with scrumptious food and plenty of laughter. I can’t say I will miss much of 2020 because Lord knows how many losses there were, but I will say that the year is definitely ending with some sweet memories. I am excited to ring in the new year, although my 25th birthday is right around the corner too… Man, that just seems so weird to me!
Here’s hoping 2021 brings us all many blessings, contagious laughter, and amazing adventures big or small! 🙂
Gracie James 