Our First Married Christmas: Expectations and Reality

Today is my first Christmas as Shaniah Noel Thompson; it is our first Christmas in our tiny little apartment with our tiny little tree. It is our first Christmas where we haven't been at my in-laws house or traveled to his Aunt and Uncle. It's been an interesting day of expectations and reality.

Christmas Eve was full of pleasant surprises. Luke was supposed to be working, but then he got the call that the load was light and they wouldn't need him. I cheered and went back to sleep. We then spontaneously drove to my family (we were supposed to see them Christmas Day but then, yeah). That was much the same except this time Luke and I were able to do presents and I was *very* happy about that. We got home late last night and then we went to sleep on our very first Christmas Eve.

This is where expectations met reality.

Like I said, for the last three years, we've done Christmas with Luke's family. We've always been there Christmas morning and had certain foods and opened presents. Then we've gone to his Aunt and Uncle's for more food and more presents. I knew it'd be a little strange this time around, but I was excited to start our own traditions. The problem, however, is that you kiiinda have to preplan traditions. So, what I vaguely wanted to do was read the Christmas story, watch festive Christmas movies, and have matching pjs. Y'know, everything Hallmark does.

Instead we did everything on a whim and ended up with early morning present opening and mini wienies for breakfast. We watched the Ellen Degeneres Netflix special (hilarious, but not Christmas-y) and then I lost myself in social media while Luke played video games and read for an hour or two. Then we went to Sheetz for coffee, coke, and an ice cream cookie sandwich. Here God blessed us with an encounter where we could bless and reflect on the reason for the season.

Then it was home and cuddles and laziness until it was time for dinner. While I definitely had the idea for typical Christmas foods or delicious goodies.... I didn't really plan for those things. Thus, we had a merry little meat loaf and some pokemon sugar cookies. Festive, eh?

Here's our

aesthetic dinner

and

Here's everything I cleared off the table for the picture:

Here's the sugar cookies

and

Here's how literally half of the cookies turned out:

We ended our day with an impromptu facetime with Luke's family and I'm about to go remind him that I want to read the Christmas story [because yes, we forgot until I wrote this blog post.].

Our first Christmas wasn't a magical Hallmark special, but it was fun, it was silly, and it was our own unique day. Next year, who knows where we'll be, the things that we'll have, or the stuff that we'll do? All I know is, just like this year, we'll be making sweet and silly memories together while celebrating the birth of our savior.

I know many of my friends are recently married or soon to be and so I just want to offer some encouragement that if your first X as a married couple didn't go as dreamed or planned... remember, it's your first. You've gotta figure out what works for you and what things you want or don't want to do! For example, I've learned I'll need to wake up early on Christmas morning to make breakfast or else Luke will make mini wienies before noon. ;)

I think next year I'm going to try for some matching PJs, one or two Christmas movies, a reading of the Christmas story, attending a Christmas Eve service (we haven't been near our home church for this..yet) and to make a special Christmas time food/treat. What's a tradition you've done with your family? What's something you think you might like to do? :)