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First things first - Thank you guys soooo much for all of your love, comments, and prayers with my carrier test. We couldn't be more thrilled that I am not a carrier and that we can possibly make "Rondi" babies!! We'll keep you posted once there's actually news to report. For now, we are just thankful for our options and we'll continue moving the ball forward. We scheduled a December 21st appointment with a doc to start discussing options. But I'm bracing myself for the long road ahead. I think the fact that the earliest appointment available was December 21st is a good indicator that it will be a LONG process! We'll keep you posted!
Now onto current events - As you saw in Ronnie's post on Saturday, we had an awesome Thanksgiving! His family does holidays up right. All 30+ of them get together at either his mom's house or one of his aunt's houses, and there's always a lot of food, a lot of games and a lot of fun. This Thanksgiving was no exception. There were kids all over (even a baby that most people couldn't pry from my arms), so much food I couldn't even think of eating a little of each (and I went into the meal with my game face on and an empty stomach...still no go), and the annual cousin bake off (in which each cousin brings a dessert and then all the desserts are judged...winner gets to take the traveling trophy home) went really well. We came in second - a shame, but perhaps next year we'll have to focus on looks AND taste. Our dessert looked awesome, but tasted not so awesome.
Thanksgiving got me into the holiday spirit. I had told myself that I couldn't decorate for Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving, and it didn't take me very many hours into Friday to start getting the itch to decorate. So Friday night we went to Hobby Lobby (does anyone else have a Hobby Lobby by them? It's the best store EVER) to buy Christmas decorations. I kicked off the holiday decorations by making my first ever wreath...that's right, watch out Martha, this girl is getting domestic!! It turned out pretty well (said while patting myself on the back)...I may or may not have had my mom on video chat walking me through the process, but hey, you gotta start somewhere! I also set up a little tree on our kitchen island (we are doing a big tree too, but we won't do it until the end of this week). After the wreath and mini tree, I had run out of decorations, so I wrapped up my decorating for the night. But I got an early start Saturday morning with a another trip to Hobby Lobby, TJ Maxx and Walmart. I came home with a car full of Christmas cheer! After a full day of letting my creative juices flow, our house was turned into a winter wonderland...with only one tiny hitch - we bought about 1/4 of the lights required for our house...so right now we have the most pitiful looking Christmas lights outside, covering the side of our house, and the garage. The lights we need we couldn't find at any of the 15 stores I went to today. So that will be Ronnie's job tomorrow :)
All this decorating really got me into the Christmas spirit. I went around all weekend, singing my thoughts in the form of christmas carols (awesome for me, terrible for everyone else). I just can't help but be merry! I love this time of year. Everything has a warm and cozy feel. Everyone's more friendly. Everywhere you look there's something "jolly" feeling. Everywhere you are there is Christmas music playing. Everything is buzzing. I absolutely love it. But my favorite part is to come: My parents will be coming home from Shanghai (where they are currently living), so we'll get to spend a ton of time with them; everyone will be taking time off of work to just sit around and enjoy each other; we'll head down to Tucson so celebrate another Christmas just like we did Thanksgiving with Ronnie's HUGE, awesome family. I LOVE this time of year.
Here are some pictures of the decorations we have so far:
The pot is always there - so I just tweaked it to make it Christmasy
On the right and left are glass jars will cranberries and candles. In the middle is just a bowl of ornaments - quick and easy!
A grapevine wreath that I stuck berry-type things in. On the right and left are glass jars with cranberries and candles again..you'll notice a running theme.
A mini Christmas tree on the far end, and a cluster of glass things with cranberries and candles (told you there was a running theme!)
The wreath I made...super proud of the bow (thanks mom for walking me throw how to make a bow like that out of ribbon!!)
A glass jar with bead-like things stuck in it...same as what's stuck in the grapevine wreath. Wish I knew what they were actually called!
And now that I've shared how we're getting in the Christmas spirit, leave a comment to let me know how you are. It's our first Christmas living together, so we're starting all new traditions...I'm working overtime to make my hubby feel like his home is set for Christmas. So hook me up with some tips of what you do around your home - so I can steal your ideas and maybe get a wifey of the year award for my outstanding holiday performance :)
Logging you in...
Tara · 748 weeks ago
1. The advent calendar! We have a huge wooden advent "house" calendar from Restoration Hardware. I put 4 pieces of small candy (like mini chocolates and nerds this year) in each daily box. I think there would be enough room to fit 6, if the family were that big. We open the calendar for "dessert" right after dinner every night.
2. Christmas Eve Pajamas. I buy for the boys (my husband and our son) and Paul buys for the girls (myself and our daughter) We exchange PJs on Christmas Eve, it's the only present we are allowed to open that night. Then we wear them that night and all our pics from the next morning are in our new PJs.
3. Ornaments. I started buying the twins ornaments when they were 2 years old. (before they they received quite a few as gifts each year.) I pack them away and marked the ornament or the ornament box with their names and year. That way, when they leave the house, they will have at least 18 ornaments to bring to their own tree. (or maybe 25 if they stick around home a little longer, who knows!) But you can easily modify this with adults. I pick something form their current obsession, which is easy to do with kids. But if you have a certain hobby or goal for the year, it'd be easy to do with adults as well. The twins also love decorating the tree each year with their own special ornaments.
4. Christmas Light Walks. Many nights during december we bundle up in the dark after dinner and walk around the neighborhood looking at all the Christmas decorations. I think maybe this year we might even ride bikes so we can go further. Sometimes it's raining so we pump up the heat in the car, turn on Christmas music and drive around to different neighborhoods. We only put up a few strands of colored lights, we don't go crazy, but lots of our neighbors go nuts. It'd be fun to incorporate a nice mug of hot chocolate into our Christmas walks this year.
Sixty5roses 18p · 748 weeks ago
Our holiday traditions:
1. I decorate before Thanksgiving...yes, I'm a nut.
2. I buy a Texas Capital ornament each year
3. We go (or try to go) to seasonal concerts that come each year -- Kelly & Bruce Holiday show or Handel's Messiah done by the Symphony
4. Open PJ's on Christmas eve
5. Love Actually! That's our newest thing - we watch it on Christmas eve!
6. We go see Trail of Lights in Johnson City at some point during the holidays
7. I always make Peanut Butter Fudge and Cranberry Orange Butter Cookies
8. Holiday Wine Trail - you can get a wreath and collectible ornament from the different Texas Vineyards on the Trail.
Ok - some of those don't apply. :) When I first moved out I was sad b/c holidays didn't feel the same as they did at home and then my mom reminded me that I get to make them my own so I do some things the same and added things that are our traditions now! Good luck! Awesome decorations :) Merry Christmas to both of you!