Every year Zach and I do something many of you probably find strange. We’re actually the only ones I’ve ever heard of to do it but it’s one of my favorite traditions! We go away for a weekend every December, just the two of us, and have our Christmas. We open all our presents to each other and just enjoy alone time. We’ve done this even before children, but now that we’re parents I love it even more. Zach and I feel SO strongly that our marriage should come first and I think this tradition is another way that our children will grow up in a home knowing the love and security that comes from happily married parents!
This year, for obvious reasons, we couldn’t go away. We debated about still getting a hotel in town so it’d feel like a vacation but when it came down to it, i didn’t want to mess with packing up stuff and honestly was happy just to be HOME together! We’ve never opened presents at our house before and it was neat to get to do that.
Friday night (Dec 2nd) Mom kept Kye so we could go out on the town! We got dressed cute and started the night off at Mom and Dad’s, an Italian place in town that we always forget about even though we literally pass by it 1,000 times a day. It was the last night that I’d be out pregnant (although I didn’t know it then) and EVERYONE was commenting to me about my pregnancy. None of them believed I was due any day! We ran into Robyn’s mom and step-dad there and they were excited for us too which was sweet. After dinner we went and saw Moneyball. Parents all know – going to the movies is a SPECIAL treat! It was an AWESOME movie, like I seriously LOVED it and so did Zach even though neither of us like baseball. Can I also say that Brad Pitt just isn’t doing it for me anymore?!?! I think as he ages he’s looking more like a monkey for some reason? Zach said it’s b/c I’m just married to too good looking of a man so it ruins other men for me haha
Saturday morning we had all the plans in the world of sleeping in. Yeah right! A kid on a schedule means parents on a schedule so we “slept in” until 7:30. Hey, 30 min is 30 min! It was still nice just to laze in the bed and take our time getting up, not having to rush Kye to go potty!
Just to show you how much we spoil each other…here’s our tree with ALL the presents we’ve bought for everyone this year (including each other)
We have a tradition of doing really pretty wrapping that matches for the gifts we buy each other – here are Zach’s for me
And mine for him!
This gift needs a back story…back in 2005 Mrs. Charlotte bought me car wash gift certificates for my birthday. So random! I used a couple of them but I’m a chick – I’d rather not waste time sitting at a car wash ya know?!? So I never used the rest and since then Zach has asked me about those gift certificates because he wants to use them. EVERY holiday rolls around and I mean to dig them out and wrap them up for him as a joke…well it only took 7 YEARS but I finally remembered!!! They don’t have an expiration date on them so I’m excited to see what happens when Zach goes to use them 😉
Here’s us with some of our top presents of the morning:
A brown top coat
My new North Face jacket might be a little too small huh?
A whole place setting of my Lenox Christmas patterned china!
Such a little kid 😉
He really liked that jacket – and his new Crocs
Seminole gear
New vests
Probably THE prettiest Coach bag I own!!! Love the winter white!
New watch and wallet
ALL the gifts! (He got HOOKED UP with lots of new clothes!)
And all of mine (The small Coach bag was another freebie Zach WON from Aflac!)
Every year our gift giving is “lopsided” meaning it appears that Zach gets WAY more than me. We have a budget for each other and I’m a bargain hunter so that money stretches soooo far (I actually bought the jacket last minute just to REACH my budget b/c I did so good this year!). Girls are expensive to buy for so his money can’t possibly stretch the way my can! Hello – Coach purse?!? North Face jacket?!?! I seriously don’t think a THING of it but Zach gets bothered that it seems like he gets so much more…so this year he begged and begged and BEGGED for me to let him give me my push present.
I love the idea of a push present (what girl wouldn’t love an excuse for more presents right?) and he did GREAT with the stuff he got me when Kye was born (a brown pearl set of earrings, necklace and bracelet). I REALLY didn’t wanna do the push present that morning b/c I like the idea of waiting until after the baby arrives to do that. However, I’m glad I caved…as I got to wear it DURING delivery 😉
The moment of the two of us together when he gave me the gift is one of those moments you know you won’t forget. He was SO PRECIOUS and sweet and eager and excited and told me all these sweet things about what a great mom I am and how much I deserve this gift. We were both so happy and it was wonderful. As soon as I saw the box I told him if it was what I thought it was that I’d FLIP. And it was!!!!! I saw this ring at Steel’s and totally fell in lovvvvvve with it. It’s seriously my favorite thing he’s EVER gotten for me (other than my engagement ring duh!).
White gold with pearl in center and diamonds circling around it with a thin wavy band
LOVVVVVE
Isn’t it so pretty?!?! He SPOILS ME!!! We had a GREAT talk after the gift and just how much we want to keep our relationship strong like it is right now. We’re on a mountain and talked about how we didn’t want the baby being born (and our stress levels from that as well as lack of sleep) to put us into a valley. Just last night Zach said it’s OBVIOUS that God is truly with us right now b/c we haven’t fought at all even with VERY little sleep and feel so close and connected! If anything we’re even HIGHER on a mountain top after Brittlynn was born!!! We are so, so blessed for sure.
Typically the husband buys the wife a push present, since she is the one doing the actual pushing. But both with Kye and Brittlynn I wanted to get Zach a little something too. Both times I just did something little and more funny than serious. With Kye I got him a t-shirt made that said “Just Call Me Daddy” on it. This time around I did one of those for you from me for me type deals.
I’m SURE I’m not the only stay at home mom who will typically spend my entire day in pjs right? I have a GORGEOUS husband who works all day then comes home to a wife who is wearing xl mens tshirts that are her dads from years ago and some form of ratty, hole filled pj pants from high school. And they don’t even match. Zach has always been sweet about it but I know it bugs him. He has bought me tons of cute pjs, which I love but don’t want to wear b/c I don’t want them to get ruined.
So for Zach’s push present I went through ALL my pjs and picked out the cutest pants I have then bought a bunch of tops to match. I was practical about it…I live in sports bras so only t-shirts would work and I don’t like tight fitting stuff so I bought mens size tshirts. I quizzed Zach before doing it to see what he considered “cute” and he said “matching pjs.” I also bought a TON of them b/c if I only bought a couple I knew I wouldn’t want them to get ruined…my plan is to throw away ALL the old grungy ones and only have these (keep an eye out for a blog entry of me modeling the old ones so you can see how bad Zach has had it…haha).
After gifts Zach ran out and got us Chick-Fil-A breakfast!
Here’s our tree AFTER all our gifts for each other were opened…pretty bare!
Another “us” tradition – had to have hot choc out of our Santa mugs 😉
We enjoyed being LAZY and watching tv then playing with the Toy Story Mania Wii game I got him!
I love my man!
We got Kye from Mom’s after his nap and went to the park so I could walk some. It wasn’t fun though for me and I told Zach I really didn’t care when the baby came so why bother? We didn’t stay long and went back home so Kye and Zach could play the Wii! Zach really wanted the Toy Story Mania game after we LOVED the ride at Disney Hollywood Studios and he thought it’d be fun to play with Kye. Kye’s never seen the Wii before…and he didn’t fully get it but they had fun playing together. Zach’s version of “letting Kye play” is basically just letting Kye hold a controller and think he’s playing while Zach actually plays haha. Poor kid! Here’s a video of Kye’s first Wii experience!
Playing together
This seriously makes me laugh…
Focused faces!
While I had really wanted the baby to arrive while Stacy was on call over Thanksgiving, I’m SO glad Brittlynn held out. I can’t imagine Zach and I trying to do Christmas together with a newborn and we had SUCH a great time. We can’t wait to get to go skiing next year for our Christmas away!!! It’s our favorite thing to do for our Christmas and is actually what started the entire tradition…but it’s been awhile since we’ve been able to go. This year b/c the pregnancy and last year we did Disney instead b/c Zach’s back and moving into the house. We’re ready to see some SNOW! 😉
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Your push present is gorgeous! I like the idea of a married couple having their own Christmas because then you can really focus on the kids on Christmas morning. So fun!