Though I slept for a total of 8.5 hours last night, I tossed and turned all night, waking up several times throughout the night with excitement. When I finally woke up at an acceptable time (6:30a) I jumped right out of bed since I’m like a little kid on Christmas morning. 

Before waking Laura up I made us both hot chocolate with whipped cream, cut up some of the raspberry pastry that we bought for today, turned on the Christmas tree lights, started the fireplace app on the Apple TV and queued up Laura’s favorite Christmas song on Spotify. 

We spent the next couple of hours unwrapping gifts that we had bought for each other and that our family had sent us. 

By far the coolest gift I received was a Vitamix. Laura also bought me a PS4, several sweaters and shirts, a new watch, fitness gear and a lot of other very thoughtful gifts. 

After we finished exchanging gifts we watched our niece, Emma, on FaceTime as she opened her gift from us. We bought her LeapFrog musical and activity table. 

When my in-laws put it in front of her, she immediately started ripping the wrapping paper off. She then started pressing the buttons and dancing to every noise and light. My father-in-law tried to take it out of the box and she started to get cranky because she wanted to keep playing with it. 

It made both us feel good that she loved her gift so much. 

We jumped on FaceTime again later in the day when the rest of our family was ready to open their presents from us. 

I had to shoot out to the grocery store to pick up one missing item that we needed. Note: never do that. I thought that the grocery store would be empty. Wrong. It was packed with longer lines than there were yesterday. 

Laura made her delicious peanut butter stuffed chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. She typically only makes them at Christmas. They are incredible. 

We spent the rest of the day just relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. 

We sat down to our new traditional Christmas dinner consisting of a roast prime rib with a horseradish crust, wild mushroom risotto, prosciutto-wrapped asparagus and buttermilk biscuits.

Tomorrow we’re going to see the new Star Wars movie. I saw it with my colleagues but Laura hasn’t seen it yet so we bought tickets for tomorrow. We thought it would be a nice way to spend the day after Christmas.

We’re also looking forward to testing out the Vitamin including making margaritas with it.

For those who celebrate, I hope that you have had a special day with your family and friends.