Christmas Update

I hope everyone had a blissful Christmas. Ours was busy but wonderful. Of course, I ran around like a crazy woman last Sunday finishing my shopping. Then Christmas Eve we had dinner at my parents' house. We opened presents, which I was super excited about because I had made a calendar for my brother and my dad. I am addicted to photo projects like scrapbooking and calendar making, which totally makes sense because one of my favorite classes in high school was yearbook afterall. After dinner, the 3 of us headed to Thane and Kristi's for our annual xmas eve pj party. It was a big night because Avery wrapped up all her binkies and left them for Santa to give to new babies who needed them. She's so damn smart that she totally understands this concept. I know it was rough for Thane and Kristi too because they are the ones who got to hear Avery cry for binky for the next couple of nights, but she's doing well without it. Christmas morning we had breakfast at Barb and Ed's house and opened presents there. We had decided to only get presents for the kids this year, so it didn't take us the usual 4 hours to open presents this year. I think we were down to 2 hours instead. An improvement indeed. Then we headed back to my parents for Christmas dinner. You see we had to do 2 dinners this year. Otherwise, we would have tried to cram 35-40 people into my parents' dining room for one big dinner. They have a good sized house but not that big, so we split it into 2 dinners. My parents rule!!! To take on such an undertaking is impressive. But they have always been the best host and hostess for holiday meals and I know everyone appreciated their scrumptious meals. Poor Pop even cooked two prime ribs. Both were excellent! It was great to have so much family together this year too. My cousin Lisa even got to see her dad and brother for Christmas. Again, it was a fantastic holiday for us. My goal is to have my parents, brother and whoever else can make it to my new house in Colorado for next year's Christmas dinner. I've never hosted my own holiday meal, so that should be tons of fun to do next year.

Miss Inara made out with some fabulous gifts too. Everyone had Colorado on the mind because she got some great clothes to keep her warm. Speaking of Colorado, I think I've decided not to move any more. I looked at the weather online today and saw -15F. Gulp. Actually, double gulp. What am I thinking? I've never experienced negative degrees. Boy, am I in for a new experience. I might be moving back in April after living there for just a month. Just kidding. It's all about layers, blankets, and the heater for this girl. Back to gifts. Shawn and I got gift certs for a couple date nights, which I'm all about. I guess people have sensed from my blog that we miss going to the movies. I can't wait to use the gift certs to catch up on a few movies. So thank you everyone for all our wonderful gifts.

As for baby girl, she's getting so big!!! She's sleeping really well every night, getting 10-11 hours of sleep. Yes!!! Shawn said to me the other day that it's probably time for us to put her to sleep in her crib. The thought made me sad because that means my baby girl is growing up and doesn't need me any more. Just kidding. But it's hard to imagine that she's grown up so fast already and it's only going to get worse. Sadness. We are going to try her in the crib starting after new years. Every day it seems like I notice something new about her. It's amazing how much she has changed in just 3 months. One day last week I was overcome with a passion to write a poem for baby girl, so I disregarded my to do list and laid down next to her and wrote a poem. It's the first one I've written in quite awhile actually and it felt so good to do it. I've decided that I'm going to write her a poem every Christmas now, a special gift for my baby girl. I shared it with the family. I read it to Shawn Christmas morning and he got teary-eyed. My mom totally cried, as I knew she would. Kristi loved it and told me I should write more. That meant so much to me. I even made Tom, Kristi's dad, cry. I can't wait for Inara to be old enough to read it. I hope she knows how much I love her. She is the greatest Christmas gift I could have ever wished for. If I never receive another present the rest of my life, I will still be happy because I have her. I'd much rather watch her open gifts as she gets older anyways. My whole life is about her now and that in itself is the best gift I could get.

Shawn will post all the pics from Christmas on http://www.shawnandmarisa.com/ later today. Love to you all and have a safe and wonderful New Year!