Zach and I started a tradition on our second Christmas together (4 years ago omg!) that we’d take a trip before Christmas and open our gifts from each other. Typically, we go skiing but last year we did it at Disney (because we knew I’d be pregnant this year and I’ve always wanted to do Disney at Christmas time!) and this year, since I can’t ski, we went to his parent’s condo in Pigeon Forge.
We have a little tree and bring all our gifts for each other (except a couple to open at the other Christmases). We also each pick out special wrapping paper so all our presents match! Here I am with my pretty-presents for Zach:
And Zach with his for me! Isn’t it awesome that I have a husband who likes to make his presents look so great? He’s so thoughtful!
We opened cards first and Zach was soo soo sweet and bought me a card from the baby!!! He wrote: “Mommy, thank you so much for carrying me! I love being inside you and sleeping to the sound of your heart! Thank you for the yummy peanut butter you feed me. I am so sorry I kick so much but I am trying to get Daddy to shut up. Opps sorry for the bad word. Thank you for all the love you give me I am so glad you are my mommy. Love, Clover” Of course he added some of his personality to it but wasn’t that so precious? It really meant a lot to me!
We always get a picture of all our presents after we’re done opening them! Zach did a great job buying for me, especially seeing as a pregnant chick is pretty tough to buy for! Some of my favorites that he got me include a red Coach purse, Victoria’s Secret and Gap pjs, necklace from Steel’s, and a Vera Bradley bottle carrier. He also bought me a jacket and a bicycle (yes, a bike! we plan to take family bike rides someday…we bought this thing to attach to a bike for the baby from a garage sale but didn’t have any bikes to attach it to!) but they aren’t in the picture!
Zach SPOILED me on my birthday so Christmas was my time to pay him back 🙂 I had so much fun shopping for him and a couple of his favorites included: the YMCA membership, Sanuk shoes, Express clothes and Wii games.
Vacations are always a time that Zach and I reconnect. It’s just something about that special time together that makes us feel closer. It was nice that we got to use the condo for free so we could not worry as much about money when we ate out! I researched tripadvisor before we left and we ate at all the top rated places…Bullfish was awesome if anyone ever goes up there!
One of my favorite things that we did while in Pigeon Forge was take a HUGE bath together! They have a jacuzzi tub in the condo, one of those corner ones, and we overloaded it with bubbles. Seriously there were so many we couldn’t even see each other through them!
We also decided to remember this Christmas as our “Redneck Christmas” because Pigeon Forge is Redneck Country! It was hilarious! Zach always says that “the south” ends north of Tifton, GA but this trip proved him wrong! We had a hard time finding things to do (since we aren’t really the redneck type…Dollywood didn’t really appeal to us…especially not for $50 a person!) but we did LOVE the As Seen on TV Stores! I fall for those commercials everytime! haha!
It may not have been as awesome as skiing is, but it was still a fun trip and I am so glad that we started this tradition together. It means so much to me now and I know that it will only be more important as we have children. Christmas really is all about kids and the fact that we’ll always have this get-away trip around the holidays to focus on each other and give each other our presents will be so great! I just can’t wait to be rid of this tummy and go skiing down the mountain in Banner Elk next year! 🙂
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You two go all out for Christmas!
So sweet. I think Greg would laugh at me if I told him he had to wrap a gift. HAHAI want you to write a blog about how you met Zach, started dating etc, I have never heard the story!Rachael