Christmas was almost a month ago

but I still want to tell you about our quiet little Hawaiian Christmas.

First, the early Christmas present I got for Chris. (Pay attention to the second picture of little Jocelyn...yeah, check out those teeth!)

And now, A Christmas Story:

To be quite honest, it didn't really feel like Christmas. I wasn't as homesick as I was last year because it didn't feel like holiday times. The weather wasn't cold, the few lights that I did see just made me feel like some rednecks left their lights up through the summer, and our decorations were just a tree in a tiny bedroom.

I wasn't very sad about this, mainly because since it didn't feel like Christmas, it didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. To make it even less Christmassy, I wasn't feeling good so I didn't feel up to making our traditional Christmas Eve dinner OR even eating anything sweet. A weird Christmas indeed.

Our cute little Christmas decor.

Since we didn't have very many presents and there are only two of us, I came up with a little game to make Christmas morning last a little longer.

I made a list of activities to do in between opening presents

Then I cut them up and folded them and stuck them in a jar.

Some things were basic like, eat something or get dressed. Others were more fun like play with something you opened, have a bicycle race, watch a Christmas movie, bake cookies.

So we each opened a present and then one of us drew an item from the jar.

 

Chris said our new tradition should be wearing our stockings after we
open everything in them...

My favorite one was the first one we drew out: Make a list of things you love about each other. 

Well the morning didn't last as long as I had hoped because Chris is like a little kid and we started opening presents at around 6am or so.

Little did I know there was a good reason for that (he was excited for me to open my big present, the one on the dresser in the top picture).

Once I tore off the front layer of wrapping paper, this is what I found: Super Laptop Upgrade Device- by Dell.

**Back story: I've had my laptop for 5 or 6 years AND it's a hand-me-down. It's sort of a piece of crap. What I really wanted for Christmas was a macbook pro but I knew we couldn't afford it. So I told Chris that any new computer would be great.**

SO then he handed me a dollar coin to put into the upgrade slot of my choice. My options were: standard upgrade, super upgrade, or ultimate upgrade. Obviously I chose ultimate upgrade.

The instructions then told me to insert my old dell into the labeled slot receiver.

So I did, and out of the other side came a big computer sized box:

The box was wrapped, so I set it down and unwrapped it. And wouldn't you believe it, it wasn't a Dell after all...

I got my Macbook Pro!!!! I actually cried when I opened it, no joke I totally started crying. My cute, perfect husband got me the only present I really wanted even though it was out of our budget and we couldn't afford it. (Let me be clear, we had the money, we didn't go into debt for this computer. But we are not made of money and there were other things we could have spent that money on).

So Chris spent my whole Christmas budget on one present (and overspent about $900). But to make me feel better he wrapped boxes of nothing for me to open so it looked like I had more than one present. I asked him to please not do that again because it's sort of sad.

Anyway, it was a good pretend Christmas that didn't feel like Christmas. We were both happy and I spent the rest of my day playing with my new toy!