What a bountiful Christmas! This was the first one I've spent apart from my own family. Previously, Nash and I spent Christmas in California and New Year's in Montana, but that travel between the two is so hectic and expensive that this year we decided to just go to Montana. Over the past couple years, Nash's family has felt more and more like part of my own, and they made me feel right at home. Plus, it meant that this was my first white Christmas!
I know that sometimes in my daily life I get a little austere and preachy - "don't buy anything unless you really need it " and so on. But on Christmas, I find it's best to throw that attitude out the window and embrace the excitement of consumerism. I can't overstate the gratitude I feel for the people who spent time thinking about what things would make me happy.
One of these things is definitely food, and Nash's mom cooked us the most amazing meals. For breakfast: creme brulee French toast and eggs benedict and peach bellinis. And for dinner: lamb shanks for the non-vegetarians, and black bean grits, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes for all.
And as for the lovely wrapped presents under the tree, I received a lovely flower dress that I plan to wear on New Year's and Nash got an Airbnb gift card and a wake-up light. But his favorite was the stuffed bread, waiting under the tree with a ribbon around him. We named him Donnely, an anglicization of the Korean word for loaf, "deong-eoli".
And there were SO MANY OTHER TOYS. Ralph got an HTC Vive VR Headset, which makes us look ridiculous but I can't wait to play with even more. We played a board game that was based on one of our favorites, Betrayal at House on the Hill, but set in D&D's Forgotten Realms. And then there was a set of RC battle drones (yup, one of these got stuck in my hair). The overall effect was just like something straight out of a child's Christmas dream, if they got every item they ever wanted and more.
To try to make up for my absence, I Skyped with my family in Sacramento and they showed off their gifts. Everyone there got a piece of technology for Christmas. My dad got a war video game (like always). My brother got headphones, since his had broken. My uncle got his first e-reader and my grandma got her first smartphone (my mom's old iPhone). I was looking something up on my phone and my dad said, "See, grandma, how she uses her phone to search for things?"
But the craziest gift was my dad's secret plot to give my mom an Apple Watch. I purchased it on my credit card so that it wouldn't appear on his statement, then my brother picked it up at the Apple Store so no suspicious package would arrive at their house. And finally, my dad wrapped it in a package shaped like a wine bottle. She had no idea it was coming, and was totally shocked.
One of my family traditions is that everyone gets a scratch lotto ticket in their stockings. Typically, we get maybe $20 or a couple of free tickets out of the batch. But this year, my grandma won $2,000! Everyone was freaking out so much! My brother was questioning whether the ticket was even real.
In short, this was an amazing Christmas, spent in good company both near and far. I feel like the luckiest girl alive, and almost every moment throughout the day made me feel like an excited child again (especially playing in the snow and reading by the fireplace!) I hope this feeling of fullness stretches on through the long winter and beyond, and I hope you all get to experience some of it too!
-Katie, 
