Ketchup

Okay, so here I am catching up again from several events that have happened recently. When our faithful readers last left off, I was on my way to another Christmas party.

Friday night we had our family Christmas party with the Rileys hosted by Jenn and Matt. I again, failed at taking pictures. But dad got some good ones! It was a lot of fun, as usual, and I ate way too much, as usual.

Saturday we spent our first day off together in 5 or 6 weeks by organizing the house. We Stephen moved a ton of stuff out of the guest bedroom that is to become the nursery, and moved it into the other upstairs bedroom and the attic. I laboriously went through some of my zillions of books to see which ones I could part with long enough to box them up and put them in the attic. We met up with Granny and Granddaddy at 4:00 to go to dinner and a show in Fayetteville. We went to the Haymont Grill for dinner, and then hopped over to the theatre (theater??) to watch The Best Christmas Pageant Ever on stage. This is officially an annual event for us, because we did it last year as well. We also stopped and looked at some Christmas lights on the way home.

Sunday, after church, we realized how much free time we actually had. Choir practice was canceled, which meant we didn't have to be back at church until 7:00. Whoa!! After spending the day cooking, eating, organizing more nursery stuff, watching a movie, and generally being lazy, I realized why so many people skip night church. It felt like we had been at home for ages!

Monday was our December doctor's appointment. I knew it was going to be a real nothing appointment, but good grief, I hardly even saw the doctor's face! We were definitely in the waiting room much longer than in the room with him, although I guess that is the norm for doctor's appointments. All they did at this appointment was weight and blood pressure, listened to her heartbeat, and measured me for the first time. I wasn't privy to her heartbeat number or if I'm measuring correctly, but based on the quick, "Everything's perfect!" I got as Dr. B raced out the door, I think that's a good sign.

So now it's Christmas Eve! We will celebrate Christmas with Stephen's family tonight, which is always fun because we do the White Elephant/Chinese gift exchange. Tomorrow we can relax because we don't have anything until dinner with my family at 5:00. That means I will cook a delicious breakfast and I plan on staying in my pajamas until I feel like taking a shower.

I am so grateful that for the past couple of years both mine and Stephen's families have decided gifts are overrated. Our family picks donations instead, and you can give any dollar amount you can afford. With Stephen's family, we have tried different things over the years. One year we picked two names and got gifts under a certain amount. One year we had to give a $20 bill to two different people in the most creative way we could think of. This year we just drew one name each, and our gift(s) has(have) to be able to fit into these small boxes we have. That is going to be one hard task, considering I drew Stephen's name. What I got for him is definitely going to have a hard time fitting in there. We haven't bought each other Christmas presents in probably four years or so, so I was actually really excited to be able to buy him something just for fun. I don't think he's ever read this blog except for when I make him ("I live our life - why should I read about it?!") but I don't want to put what I got him just in case.

I will be very slack about updating for a while because on Friday we leave for Georgia, where we'll be until after New Years. So, Merry CHRISTmas and Happy New Year!!! Be safe, eat a lot, take lots of naps, and be blessed!!