Matt and Jamie Glenn: First Christmas

I know this post is a little late, but really, "it's never too late", right?

Matt and I were so excited to have our very first Christmas with Kinely. It was just us, so while it was a little quieter than our past holidays, it was also such a special time for us to be together as our little family. We took some traditions that both Matt and I grew up with, and made some of our own.

On Christmas Eve, we decided we wanted to keep up with Matt's family tradition of having a Nazareth Supper. For those of you who aren't familiar, (I never heard of this until I met him and his family) the Nazareth Supper is something my in laws do on their Christmas Eves. Basically we have a dinner that is roughly similar to what people in Jerusalem, during Christ's birth, would have eaten. Key word being "roughly" here. Our first Nazareth Supper consisted of pita bread, deli meats, cheeses, grapes, mandarin oranges, olives and sparkling cider. We turned off most of the lights in our little apartment and ate by candlelight while we read the Christmas story from the book of Luke in the Bible. I loved it. I feel like it really brought the spirit of Christmas in our home. I think when our family is a little bigger and older, I'll have everyone dress in robes and shawls. I think that would make it a little more fun as well.

Another thing I really liked about this tradition is that it was so easy to put together and clean up! No cooking was involved at all, which was awesome because the very next day is all about the cooking! Although I will say that one year I do want to try and have salmon, so that will be a little more prep, but, I can handle that.

Kinley is so excited for our Nazareth Supper

On Christmas Day, we waited for Kinley to wake up and hurried out to open our stockings and our presents. I will admit that Kinley did not get anything in her stocking. I decided to tell Santa that the huge pile of gifts for her under the tree would be more than enough. Matt and I kept up my parents tradition of having oranges in our stockings. They are not the same as the big, juicy, delicious oranges that came right off our tree from my childhood backyard, but the sentiment is still nice.

I also talked Matt into opening our Christmas gifts in shifts. He was reluctant, but he went along with it. That's something my parents also did. I remember as a kid waking up and having our little family Christmas early in the morning. We'd open our stockings and all our gifts from our parents and Santa, then we'd hurry and get ready and all our extended family always came over to our house. We would then have Christmas brunch and then open presents that our extended family would bring. Then after awhile our house would empty again and that would be the time that my parents napped and that us girls played with our new toys! Later that evening we went to my grandparents house (my mom's parents) and have Christmas dinner there and we would open all of their gifts then. I just remember that it was so fun having it spaced out like that.

Since it was just us for Christmas, and I knew we'd be skyping with our families at some point during the day I convinced Matt to follow the same pattern. We opened our gifts to each other first and then when we skyped with our families we opened the gifts that they got us.Of course, Kinley didn't realize what was going on, but it was fun to watch her play with the wrapping paper and her new toys. We are so blessed and feel so loved by everyone! I won't name everything we received, but I will say that I got Matt a Blu-Ray/DVD player, and he got me a watch. =)

"yay for all these presents!"

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She was so intrigued by this bow!

about 98% of these are Kinley's! ha!

Blu-Ray player! He never expected it

Love my watch! I was so surprised

After the presents were opened and everything was cleaned up, it was time to start Christmas dinner. One thing you need to know about Matt and I is that we are both HUGE fans of dark meat on the turkey. However, a full turkey is a lot for just the two of us, so some friends of are told us that we should try duck! It's a lot smaller and all dark meat! We were sold. We found a place that sold duck, got a recipe and we were off. Prior to this Christmas, I had never had duck, and Matt had only had it a couple of times, so I was excited to try something new. Also, I love that Matt likes to be in charge of the bird for the holidays. I honestly have no interest in preparing it, I'd rather take care of all the sides and desserts, so that's how things are done in this Glenn home. Matt did an AMAZING job with the duck! It turned out great along with the rest of our dinner! We were so impressed that we decided, while our family is small, duck will be our bird of choice for Christmas dinner. (Thanks for the suggestion Burrastons!)

All the fixins

Later that night we were invited to a friends house for a breakfast party and games! Even though we are far from loved ones, we have been welcomed into so many people's homes since we've been here in Texas. As soon as people find out that we are alone in this Lone Star State (<--get it) they always make sure that we have somewhere to go and something to do for the holidays. Matt and I feel so blessed for all the wonderful people we have met here! Matt and I loved having our first Christmas the way we did. I would not have changed anything. I am so in love with my little family and can't wait to see what the new year brings!

And there you have it. Our first Christmas, alone, but together!

You think I was going to leave you without more pictures of Miss K? I'm not that cruel. lol