Santa comes sooner when you live this close to the North Pole!

Post ONE of TWO.

Since we travel over Christmas - and prior experience has taught us to share this moment alone - we celebrate our holiday a few days before the trip. My husband the ultimate procrastinator spent the afternoon (we observe a law in North Dakota that prohits any store - other than grocery or convenient stores and eating estalishments from opening before 12:00 p.m.) shopping and texting periodically things like "Pain, Pure Pain" and "What's the score of the football games?"

We opened gifts after I slaved over the stove for what seemed like the entire time he was gone. RIGHT - we passed over a smorgesbord of goodies at a holiday party to eat one of my favorites - chicken strips, cottage cheese and mac-n-cheese. YUM!

It took all my will-power to get through supper without having Ben open his gift - they have been under the tree for nearly 2 weeks at this point. However, there was quite a discrepancy between the number of packages with mine name and Ben's name on them under our tree.

These pictures are a sampling of the goodies I received from Ben this Christmas. In my stocking I got some Reese's PB cups (my absolute favorite), some Hot Cocoa flavored bath accessories and the cutest Coke bottle (shaped as a Christmas ornament). I AM A COKE KID!

Also, it is a tradition to receive some "skivvies" from the hubby for Christmas, this is just one of many!

Most of you know I'm a a) big Twilight fan, b) love to cook, c) live in what I call the tundra and d)love love love Socks. So, my husband (being a savvy, quick and efficient shopper) gave me this apron.........................VERY VERY VERY CUTE! He found it in a booth at Louisville! What a great find! P.S. This is probably the best picture of our Christmas tree which was festivally lit while the "NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL CHRISTMAS - COUNTRY EDITION" was playing in the background. I will confess the TV wasn't off - the Steelers/Packers game was a close one in the 4th quarter so it was muted, but still on!

Also, he found me a beautiful turquoise scarf (you'll just have to see it in person) and brown leather glooves to go with my new red pea coat I got for my birthday/graduation gift.

I also am the proud new owner of ECLIPSE (the 3rd Twilight installment) a new pair of Maurices jeans, an very cute NDSU Animal Science pullover sweatshirt, a black Columbia full-zip fleece jacket and some more Eddie Bauer wool socks (my favorite wool sock brand).

The last of my Christmas gifts from Ben included some new PJ pants (which I found out is extremely hard to find in a "LONG" length) and a pair of turquoise slipper socks. NOTE: PLEASE DISREGARD THE VULGARITY OF MY T-SHIRT, I SHOULD REALLY STOP WEARING THIS HOT MESS. I've had my eye on a pair of slipper socks for awhile and Ben found the perfect pair with two jingle bells on each sock. I have two regrets regarding these slipper socks though, a) I didn't model the awesomeness of the jingle bells and b) I didn't own a pair of these sooner!

All in all - I'd say "I SCORED" this Christmas - you'll get to see my showcasing my many treasures over the next two weeks! THANKS BEN for a wonderful Christmas! Please keep reading - up next are the goodies Ben got from this elf on his first Norweigan Christmas!