This year Mark and I had our first Christmas where we exchanged gifts by ourselves in our own home. We opened them on Christmas Eve morning since we were going to his parents later that day and staying there through Christmas. The morning felt so magical, just like Christmas at my house feels! I could imagine our own little family traditions being born and can't wait until we have kids!
We gave each other some pretty awesome gifts! The best ones were all homemade, of course. I made Mark a mug with the lyrics to our wedding song.
We gave each other some pretty awesome gifts! The best ones were all homemade, of course. I made Mark a mug with the lyrics to our wedding song.
I also made him a date night jar! He actually helped me paint the sticks but didn't know what they were for!
They are color coded, silver sticks are free dates, gold sticks are moderately expensive and black sticks are big and elaborate dates. There are 130 dates total!
Some of my favorite dates for each color are:
Silver - Picnic in a meadow, Explore a nearby forest, Eat a dinner consisting of only free samples, Build a fort and play games inside, Visit an animal shelter, Go to Hollywood and people watch, Have a Disney movie marathon & work on a puzzle, and Make s'mores on the beach!
Gold - Go on a food crawl (that's where you go to different restaurants for an appetizer, entree, and dessert!), Take the bus and get off at a random stop and explore, Go to Michael's and pick a craft to do, DISNEYLAND (which is not black because we will have annual passes! It's not silver though because of gas), Go to a movie screening in the park, Make and fly a kite, Go get ice-cream & pick each other's flavors & toppings, and Play laser tag!
Black - Go to a ballet, Take a road trip to Hearst castle, Go to the San Diego Zoo, Spend the night in Catalina, Rent a sports car for the day, Go to a professional sporting event, Go scuba diving, and my very favorite, Go to the airport and select a destination!! Then play everything by ear when you get there :)
I also made Mark a bucket list for our life! This was homemade because I painted the frame gold. This was an all-day project, let me tell you. Never again!! But I'm really happy with the list :)
Mark made me the best gift of all! He drew me a picture of where he proposed to me!!! I cried when I saw it! Isn't he the sweetest???
He wrote me a very sweet letter on the back that made me melt. This boy is seriously so romantic and I love it.
We also got each other clothes, he got me lots of parenting books, and I got him Vans and new running shoes (much needed). OH and he got me the most adorable ring ever!!! I squealed like 10 times!
Oh and another awesome present he got me was a Day Designer!!! It is an organizer's dream!!! The best planner on the market.
The beginning has a bunch of worksheets to fill out about your dreams, goals in a bunch of categories (family, financial, career, spiritual, and personal), values, passions and strengths. After you fill them out, you have to prioritize and choose the top 5 of each of them and input them into a Venn diagram to figure out your mission statement and purpose in life, which helps you make your yearly and monthly goals fit around your main purpose and the things that are most important to you.
The daily planning pages look like this:
I LOVE the layout! I am a person who plans out my day from start to finish so the time slots are a necessity and then I love the side where you can just put all your important things to do, your top three to do's, and all the other little boxes. The Download section is for any thoughts you have floating around in your head that you need to put down on paper so you can sleep better. And I love the Daily Gratitude!
Well, this entry is so long I will write about Christmas at the Rawlings in another entry! Almost as good as our own :)
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