CHRISTMAS! ! !

Without even a slight tone of exaggeration I can say that this last Christmas was the best of my life... and I have had a lot of really great Christmas'. I had a week to get ready for Christmas without any work at all, so I had time to buy Dane lots of Christmas presents, then return them, then buy again. I was very indecisive about Dane's presents. I wanted to get him exactly what he wanted, so I would buy something for him, and then convince myself that he might not like it, and take it back. After one day of this back and forth, I finally called Dane and told him I was really nervous about shopping for him, and felt like I would screw it all up. Looking back I realize it's not THAT big a deal, but Dane was very sweet and convinced me that he wanted me to get him what I wanted to get him, and that his Christmas happiness was not contingent on the presents he received from me. My shopping day continued and after about 5 hours of indecision I took action and bought Dane some cologne along with a few presents for my family. Then Dane decided to surprise me by showing up at the mall to say hello. This was OK with me because I was finished shopping, and Dane's present was hidden at the bottom of my my bag. As we left the mall I was walking just a little in front of Dane, and all of a sudden my bag broke, and Dane's cologne dropped out of the corner, and slid right to his feet. Nothing else fell out of the bag... just Dane's cologne. We both started cracking up, and Dane picked up his present, handed it to me and said, "Uh, I didn't see it"? After that first day of shopping I decided to not let myself get stressed out, and had alot of fun picking out presents for Dane. We spent Christmas with Dane's family in Kennewick. This was so fun for me, because I have not had a whole family Christmas in SO LONG. I loved being with Dane's mom and Dad, and most of his siblings. We were supposed to go to Leavenworth with my family the day before we left, but a storm was coming in, so we left to Kennewick early. It was a good thing we did, because all of my family and friends in Seattle got snowed in for days. We had a white Christmas in Kennewick too, which was fun. Christmas consisted of alot of hanging out, seeing some of Dane's closest friends, eating, running the treadmill twice, eating, doing crafts with Dane's mom, and more eating. The Yancey's have a really cute tradition called the Love box, where everybody passes around a box (full of tissues this year) and picks one person to tell why they love them. It was one of my favorite parts of Christmas this year. I made my mom's chocolate candies that she used to make every year, and Dane loved them. Christmas Eve Dane and I exchanged ornaments that we bought for each other and filled each other's stockings...with some help from Santa of course. :) Dane and I made a list of all the Christmas traditions we wanted to do together, and an ornament exchange was one of them. Dane thought I had all of these really great ideas for traditions, but as he hung out with my siblings he realized I have stolen most of my traditions from them. Oops! So much for trying to sound creative. :) Christmas morning Claire ran in my room and said, "Tia, Santa came"! It was so fun having a little niece around for Christmas. Dane and I exchanged presents and despite my knack for ruining surprises, Dane was very surprised at all of his gifts. I got him some very boring gifts that he loved, like an external hard drive. I also got him his fav. movie, some dress shoes, a wallet, etc... but the one I was the most excited about was a pillowcase that I sewed for Dane (with alot of specific instruction on how to sew from his mom). I loved all of my gifts from Dane. They were very thoughtful and really showed how well he knows me. Like getting me an Archie comic book (blast from the past), a people magazine with Jennifer Aniston on the cover in my stocking, and an hour massage certificate that I am gonna LOVE! He told me he even asked the massage place if they could do something special for my feet, because he knows that they have been hurting me lately. He's so cute. :) My favorite gift from him was a beautiful necklace, with a necklace holder that he stained and crafted all by himself. The necklace holder was my favorite because Dane hates going into craft stores. I was very touched. :) So anyways, Christmas was a BLAST! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. If any of you have a fav. tradition you do at Christmas time, please share... I will probably steal it. :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful 2009!