christmas!

Ah, Christmas! We had a super Christmas month around here, one of the best Decembers ever. Mostly because I said no to a lot of things this year, like Christmas cards and goodie plates for every single person we know and elaborate homemade gifts. And blogging, too, apparently. I said yes to a whole lot of amazon shopping and saved my gigantic self the bother of actually leaving the house. It was great!

I did this in part because I am enormous at 7 months pregnant and mostly because I couldn't say "no" to the ward Christmas party that I was responsible for this year. You know, because Young Womens presidents who are 7 months pregnant have a lot of time on their hands... and that's all the whining I will do about that. It is over and it was reasonably successful and hopefully I will be in charge of a different activity next year. Like no activity whatsoever. Just kidding! Sort of...

So here are a few highlights from our magical laid back December:

We got our tree from a tree farm this year. Talk about the best of both worlds! We have tried to both ways - tree lots and BLM-style - with varying degrees of success. Tree farms are 100% guarantee! Everywhere you look there are gorgeous trees, just waiting to be cut. All you do is wave your little flag, and a nice man with a tractor and a chainsaw shows up, and there you go! Sam really loved the tractor and the chainsaw.

We made our annual gingerbread house, courtesy of Costco.

On Christmas day, we opened presents galore, went to church, opened a few more presents, and spent the rest of the day relaxing in our sweats, eating delicious food (like cheese! Thanks, Dad and Miranda!), and wishing the day wouldn't end.

Eve's favorite gift: a box full of Warriors books.

One of Sam's favorites: his new robe, courtesy of Grandma, that just happens to look a Jedi robe. Especially when paired with the light saber lollipop that came in his stocking.

Eleanor's hands-down, no-doubt-about-it favorite: the life-sized cheetah stuffed animal that she has yearned after for almost two years. Like Eve said, "This HAS to be from Santa because there is no way Mom and Dad would spend that much on a stuffed animal!" True story. Santa is very savvy with the amazon Black Friday deals.

To prolong the fun, we surprised the kids with a day-after-Christmas overnight trip to see the magnificent Christmas lights at Shore Acres State Park in Coos Bay, Oregon. All the awesome pictures of the lights are on Jared's camera, but I think the highlight for the kids was spending hours in the hotel pool.

I am a little sad to see this December end, especially since I did such a poor job of documenting it in pictures and blog entries. But it's nice to think this is the last Christmas I will spend pregnant and that just one year from now our little guy will be bopping around and joining in all the festivities with us. Makes me excited for 2012! Merry belated Christmas, everyone!

sick day

We are having one of many sick days around here today. Thanksgiving was perfectly lovely - we had several good friends over and ate way more than we should - but then got hammered with an unpleasant bug about two days later. Nothing too nasty (or stomach-y, thankfully!) - just enough to give everyone a fever and make us want to lay around and watch TV. So kind of what most people did last weekend, just with a fever.

I thought we had kicked it, but Sam woke up this morning with a terrible croupy cough and nose running like a faucet. And I woke up at 4:45 with a nightmare and couldn't get back to sleep, mostly just because I am too big to sleep like a normal person (yay, pregnancy sleep!) So we are definitely having a stay-at-home day today.

It's actually been pretty great. Fun to hang out with Sam, especially. We spent a blissful morning drinking cocoa and playing many many rounds of Candyland. I hardly ever get to do that kind of stuff with him because we are always running around like crazy things. It was nice to put all that stuff on hold today and pretend that I am not responsible for the ward Christmas party next Saturday (la, la, la - I can't hear you!)

Before I get back to said paperwork,I wanted to answer a few questions you had about our impending addition. We are told to expect a boy, which is awesome. Two of each - I couldn't have planned it better. And I am due March 1. But because of the size (enormity?) of Sam, I seriously doubt I will be permitted to reach my due date. So I optimistically tell everyone I am due in February. Also, it is a Leap Year next year, so I would like to stay far away from delivering anywhere near March 1...or, rather, Feb. 29. I would prefer not to be on the local news right after delivering a baby. One of many reasons.

To prove that I have no pride and that this blog is not about pretending that my house is always clean or that I am always showered, here is a picture of me I found on our camera a few days ago:

See? I really am pregnant! Only pregnant ladies look this radiant in the morning.