Our First Christmas

Hi everyone...It's Allison here and our Christmastime with our families is over. We had a great time with some hilarious moments, like when Abe's mom (whose native tongues are Chinese, Vietnamese and French) tried to speak Swahili using the phrase book we got Abe's sister and brother-in-law for their upcoming trip to Kenya.

Even though we were dating last Christmas, we weren't able to spend the holiday with both sets of our families. It's really fun for both of us to be included in two families with are both so wildly different. Sometimes being with Abe's family felt surreal. I would never have thought I would be drinking aloe vera juice at a Thai restaurant talking about the Chinese words Abe has taught me. Abe has always told me that life with him would be an adventure, and it definitely has proven to be.

My favorite moment of the weekend was playing Uno with his family. Uno is a game I played at Christmases growing up with my mom, cousins, grandma and great aunt, who used to say "You-know" instead of "Uno." Abe's family is incredibly welcoming, but I sometimes feel somewhat out of place with them since I'm not used to the cultural differences yet. But playing Uno made me feel very much at home. We had a lot of funny moments, too.

After spending time with Abe's family and eating all sorts of unhealthy Asian food, we both were glad to visit my family and have a typical American Christmas. My brother and his girlfriend flew in on Christmas Day, which was awesome.

Abe and I drove back to Chicago last night since he had to work today. It was dark and we both realized this was the same time in the evening we typically left each other's home to drive back to our own home when we were dating. We both looked at each other and said how thankful we are to be married and to share one home together. And we're both enjoying the diversity in that home which is reflected in our leftovers in our fridge -- Thai food from our meal with his family and leftover cake from our wedding that my parents' defrosted; Vietnamese sausage from his parents and ham from Christmas with my family.

How cool that we are now a part of two very distinct families that bless us in such different ways. And, both of us bonded with our respective mothers-in-law through some funny moments: I bonded with his mom when she found out I knew how to say the Cantonese word for "fart," while Abe bonded with my mom when he needed some instructional help on how to properly wrap my presents. Anyway, we are feeling very blessed this Christmas to have so many people who love us so much.