Christmas 2013 in Pictures

     This year was one of the best Christmases yet.  It was so fun to see the family and to have the new house to celebrate in.  I thoroughly enjoyed buying my gifts for others this year and had a blast seeing everyone open-- and hopefully like-- them.  But, as the old cliché goes, a picture is worth a thousand words:

My brothers were just a little more patient than I...

This is the "before" picture.  As in: before wrapping paper and bags were strewn all over the living room.

 Of course: I did my Christmas village again.  Thanks to the new location, I had a lot more room to work with this year!

We had lots of stockings this year, as we did a stocking exchange and regular stockings.  As you can see: some people got creative and used string to lead their stocking person to their gifts.  My person gave me a scavenger hunt that led me to the basement.  Super fun!

A family friend also dropped by with Poinsettas, which replaced the ones we killed already.  I snapped a shot of these before they met the same demise.

 Just lounging around, making memories!

My brother's big gift was only received after a long quest around the house per the trail of a string.  Dad went a little crazy with the string.... it went upstairs, downstairs, outside, around the house and back inside before leading to the gift!

 Christmas Dinner

Finally, we rounded out the evening with Just Dance- another much appreciated gift of the year.  All in all, it was an amazing Christmas full of precious memories and new traditions.  I'm still clinging to the Hallmark Christmas movies and counting down till next year!