This Christmas

was pretty awesome.

In my family, we make a relatively small-deal about presents, and maybe about the holiday as a whole. For the last few years I have totally resigned to the expectation of NOTHING on Christmas morning, and ONE $25 gift on Christmas Eve- as part of our family Christmas celebration and "adult gift exchange". This year however, there were 2 main differences in that. 1) The gift exchange price was upped to $40. Nice. Because in most cases that has to cover two people, since most people are "couples" and not singletons like myself. 2) I have a boyfriend. Boyfriends and girlfriends exchange presents. Those are just the rules.

So I'd be giving and getting two presents. Alright, cool.

I was assigned my sister Jenalyn and her husband and I knew what she wanted and how to get it. She just told me to go to her Amazon.com wish list and get her a bunch of stuff for her baby boy that will be born any second now. Ok, that's pretty easy. I also threw in a little somethin' for her husband for good measure.

Then came Kimball's present. It took more thought. I didn't ask him what he wanted because I wanted it to be all from me. Well... the boy loves Robocop. And he was going to be spending the whole Christmas weekend with me at my house. So at some point I put 2 and 2 together and...

I made him this. I surprised him with it on Christmas morning- hanging at the fireplace, where he thought he wouldn't have a stocking at all. He looved it! It makes him laugh :) I filled it with/gave him a few random or necessary thingamabobs like a good razor with extra cartridges and a German/English dictionary and a sketchpad and candy.

And he gave MEEE some BOOKS I LOVE! A few weeks ago I was texting him like mad to do some price comparisons for me on the internet because I was at a clearance sale at Borders Books (without the miracle/convenience of having an internet-capable cell phone). Well even with a going-out-of-business sale, the books on Amazon were cheaper so I didn't buy them. So got me those! Smart boy.

So, going back to Christmas Eve... my oldest brother Carl (and his wife Noelia) had been assigned to me. My "$40" gift from them was... a GPS!! yESSS! This is perfect for me moving to LA! I needed this so bad. So... Carl was definitely my favorite brother of the night :) Very generous. My second favorite brother of the night would have to be Jesse because he and his wife Kelli surprised me with a gift too! It was a cloth organizer-basket-thing FULL of little house-cleaning goods and self-care products to help me get started with my new independent life in LA :) Very thoughtful. I got some other cute knick-knacks too, from others.

So, aside from presents, it was just a nice weekend because it was way chill I got to have Kimball at my side the whole time and I got to go to church with him and it was way nice. My favorite part of that is hearing his beautiful singing voice next to mine in Sacrament meeting :) And now starting next week (maybe?!) I can have that every Sunday :)