10 years of holiday cheer

Ice skating at The Egg, Albany, NY — Ice skating at Empire State Plaza, 2006 ⛸❄️

While MPR & I are coming up on two years of marriage this February, this is actually our 10th holiday season together since we met in 2006. His love of Christmas restored the holiday spirit that I lost after childhood, and now I love nothing more than to go all out with decorations and music and parties from the day after Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day.

Over the years we’ve seen and done it all together – the inception of Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties, ice skating at the plaza in Albany, holiday drinks at our favorite bars, and Christmas movie marathons on ABC Family-turned-Freeform. We even force Rufio to get into the holiday spirit with a tiny reindeer sweater.

This is the first year we’re spending Christmas away from New York. It’s bittersweet. There are things and people I’ll miss, but I’m looking forward to starting new traditions that we’ll carry through the next 10 years, including a house and a little family of our own. Plus, I have my grandmother’s ricotta cheese cookie recipe. What more do we really need?

So in honor of the Christmas season and everyone posting #2006vs2016 photos this past week, I dredged up some of our best holiday photos from the past 10 years.