We spent Christmas in Colorado Springs with my family this year. We arrived at their house around lunchtime on Christmas Eve. My brother and his wife were already there so we had lunch together and enjoyed some time around the table just catching up. We went to the Christmas Eve service at my Mom and Dad's church that evening and then returned to their house for our traditional Christmas Eve. We always watch a Christmas movie and enjoy party trays for dinner - meats, cheeses, crackers, shrimp cocktail, veggies, and of course Christmas cookies. It's nice because we just nibble throughout the evening and is a lot easier on my mom than having to prepare a big dinner. This year's movie selection was "A Christmas Story" and we followed that up with "The Polar Express."
Christmas morning we all slept in a little bit and then started opening presents. My mom made a wonderful breakfast casserole and we took a break mid-way through the gifts to have some food and re-energize. A and I kept our gifts to each other small this year since we have lots of big purchases coming up in the next few weeks. He did give me this though which I have been wanting for so long and am thrilled that it is finally appropriate.
After the gifts were opened my mom, sister-in-law, and I started getting Christmas dinner ready. My grandparents came over early afternoon and spent the rest of the day with us. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner, enjoyed more catching up around the table and then exchanged gifts with my Grandma and Grandpa. We broke out all the food again for dinner and just ate and hung out some more. I love days like that - just hanging out together, talking, laughing, and eating.
We spent several more days in Colorado Springs and had a very nice, relaxing vacation. We took Jasmine with us which means I don't worry about if she's doing okay at home, so it ends up being more relaxing for me. Fortunately she's an adaptable kitty and doesn't mind going to visit her "grandparents" every now and again.
Once we returned home I seemed to kick into full baby-prep mode. We wanted to wait until after Christmas to start intensely getting things ready and now that time is HERE! We got the Christmas decorations down and the house put back in order. I sort of felt like I should put up the Easter decorations because I probably won't have much energy or time to change up the decor between now and then, but that's probably taking things a bit far, don't you think? ;) I'm hoping to get a registry started at Target in the next few days and we are trying to sort out the furniture for the nursery and figure out what we want to get ordered. I am 28 weeks today so baby is due in 12 weeks - let's hope baby stays put until at least 37 weeks because at this point there is no way we are ready!
We are kicking back at home for New Year's Eve this year. We've got three movies rented (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Eagle Eye, and Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) and a coffee table full of appetizers to get us through the night. Honestly, this is my ideal New Year's Eve - spending time together in full relaxation mode. Tomorrow we go to A's parents house for Christmas with his side of the family.
No matter what you and your loved ones are up to this evening, I wish you a few special moments to reflect on the Lord's blessings and lessons from 2008 and anticipate the year to come! Happy 2009!
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