A Christmas Story

She walks up to the front door, arms laden with gifts. Upon reaching the door, she notices a note addressed to her, quickly she reads it before returning to her car for the remainder of her packages. Coming back to the house, she quickly removes the note from the door and reads it again with a grin on her face. "Follow these instructions EXACTLY! to recieve your gift. Instructions Where do you go to put your gifts? Once you get there find me and look inside." So off she went, into the living room to look by the Christmas tree. She was surprised when she did not see her loved one in there waiting for her. So she proceded on the the next part of the clue "find me"...she saw no gifts with his name on them...but suddenly she saw a mailbox with his name on it and upon looking inside, found her next clue. "Roses are red, violets are blue, you need to go where I first said I love you!" This was an easy one. She raced down the stairs to the basement couch, again expecting to find him there, but the room was empty. On the couch was a small black box. Her face lit up as she slowly opened it, all the time wondering where he was. Unbeknownst to her, he was carefully hidden, watching her every move. Her face broke out in a grin as she opened the box and pulled out a delicate diamond and sapphire ring. He came out from his hiding place, a grin on his face as well, and sat beside her on the couch as she placed the ring on her finger. "It's perfect," she said.
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And now my friends, I must tell you, that that is a true story, as experienced by me yesterday afternoon. Mike bought me this beautiful promise ring, which he gave me for Christmas last night!

My BEAUTIFUL ring!!!!

When we came upstairs, of course I had to show off my new ring! Then we went into the living room for more gifts. Mike's parents bought me a Kitchen Aid mixer for my Christmas and birthday present. I was so excited! I've wanted one of these for such a long time. I gave Mike a sweatshirt and a hat from American Eagle.








Mike opening his gift from me :)










After the immediate family gift exchange, we went to Mike's aunts house for his whole family get together. We had a delicious dinner: ham, cheesy potatoes, potatoes au gratin, vegetable cassarole, salad, rolls, and baked apples. After a while, the younger kids began to get impatient, so we moved into a big circle to open the presents. Mike's Grandma bought gifts for everyone. She got me a Santoku knife (which I've wanted for a long time) and an American Eagle gift certificate. It was so much fun to watch everyone open their presents. The youngest kids got a ton of presents, and they seemed to think that every gift was theirs, so a lot of us would let them help us open our gifts. There were so many presents!







Grant and Tori were climbing all over the huge pile of presents!









After the regular gifts, we played Bingo. This is a Christmas tradition for Mike's family. If you get a "bingo" you get to chose a gift from the pile. Again, there was a huge pile of gifts! It was almost overwhelming! The first package I opened up was men's socks, which happened to be Mike's size, so he got them. That worked out good because later he got a women's polo shirt that is my size! Between the two of us we got $5, Bath and Body Works Apple soap, a fleece blanket, body lotion (2 kinds), and fuzzy pink gloves. His Grandma also made all the women a bunch of yarn covered hangers, so I got a bunch of those as well.

This Christmas was different from any one before for a few reasons: I had to work the morning, my family is in Canada with my mom's family (we'll celebrate Christmas when they come home tomorrow), and I got to celebrate with Mike and his family. It was a great Christmas and I hope that you and your family were blessed as well!!!