On the first night of Christmas...

Well, Ryan and I are going out of town for Christmas, so we won't be here to open the presents under our tree or to fill each other's stockings. Rather than drag all of that stuff with us, we decided to open it early. Last night, we sat down together and exchanged gifts...and opened the gifts from my parents.

Ryan called me on his way home and asked if it was OK that his gifts weren't wrapped. He apparently doesn't wrap well, and hasn't had the time to do it because he's never home while I'm not. So these are my beautifully "wrapped" gifts from him.

Rather than reaching in each bag to "open" my gift, Ryan had me close my eyes and put my hands out. He then placed each gift into my hand. He was so excited to give me my gifts, it was the cutest thing!!

He gave me a great ivory fleece robe. It's so cozy and perfect for me because I'm always FREEZING. He also got me this great mug from Starbucks and a bunch of different flavor hot chocolate packs so I can have warm cocoa at work!

Call me boring or traditional, but I chose to wrap Ryan's gifts... This one is some type of Star Wars thing to add to his collection. I also got him the book Son of a Witch.

Our main Christmas gift to each other was a new digital camera, which we actually got on black Friday because we found a good deal.

So our first Christmas together isn't even close to being over (seeing as how it's not CHRISTMAS yet), but we really enjoyed exchanging gifts with each other as husband and wife for the first time :)

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Later that night...

One of my best friends is a drummer. He's played for a lot of local LA bands, but is currently drumming for a popular band named Unwritten Law (ever heard of them?). They usually play in the LA area, but have recently returned from an east coast tour. Last night, they had a gig at the Anaheim Grove. Dylan called us and asked if we might be able to make it, he said he'd have us on "the list"!!!!

I look kind of like a goober because I started to laugh as Ryan took the picture, but this is Dylan. He is such a great guy!! We've been friends for 10 years, and he's been dating my best friend Megan for 8 years!! We went to will call and picked up our tickets and found out that we had all access passes. These passes allowed us to go anywhere in the Grove, including the dressing room and the STAGE...which is where we watched the show from!! That's right, instead of being down in the pit, where people were uncomfortably crammed, we were able to stand off to the side on the stage.

We totally had the best spot in the whole place!! It was a great show and an incredible experience! Thanks Dylan -- we love you!!!!

Oh, and Ryan got the set list signed by the whole band, he was ecstatic!!