Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

We had such a great Christmas with Fin this year. She absolutely loved all the excitement and the thrill of opening all her gifts. On Christmas Eve, we went to my parents house for some prime rib dinner with Mark, Nancy, Margo, Tim, Teresa, Ashley, Brett, and my parents. It was fun to see Brett, Ashley and Fin all play together. We started a new tradition last year of a gift exchange with the adults so each person buys one food gift and then we do sort of a white elephant game on top of that. Jeff ended up with a bunch of this fabulous beef jerkey and pepperoni stick from Stewarts Meets in Yelm and I got a ginormous gift set of a bunch of different types of chili's and stuff to go with it. It's kind of a random yet fun way to try new stuff.

Fin got a new bike, piano, various Thomas the Train items, tea set, drum set, clothes, books, and an Ipad so she can watch hours upon hours of Caillou, Thomas the Train, and Barney. She is obsessed with Thomas and all his friends. She can name almost every one of those darn things.

On Christmas Day, we hosted a brunch at our place for my family. The kids ate some homemade coconut waffles and we made some breakfast pizzas, hashbrowns, and bacon. It was fun to start a new tradition of sorts and have the family over.

That evening, we went over to Jeff's parents house for dinner with his brother's family. Then, went to his Grandma Downey's for the annual Christmas night dessert and white elephant exchange. This is my fourth year in attendance and it's such a old school type tradition. His mom's side of the family is very big and everyone comes to celebrate. Everyone gets a stocking on the fireplace with a 'card' from his Grandma and the kids get a few small things to open. Then, the adults participate in the white elephant. I've seen several of the gifts being passed back and forth for the last four years so who actually knows how long they've been in the mix. It's quite the entertainment.

We are very excited to start the New Year and all it has in store. We have our wedding in February, a two-year birthday in March, a trip to Mexico in May, and a new little bundle of joy due in late July or early August.

Yes, we're pregnant again! Ak, it's so crazy to think that we'll be having another. I've been feeling a bit better than last time but still very tired and a lot of aversions to certain foods and smells. I go to the doctor on Thursday so hopefully I'll have more news to share in the coming weeks.