A belated Merry Christmas!

Wow! I know this time of year is supposed to be busy, but I think this year was a record for me. Now that we live closer to Blake's family, there were (and are still) many get-togethers. And, my Mom came up for several days, too, so we got to visit with her. I really enjoyed the things we did, and met some of Blake's cousins that I hadn't seen before. James had a blast at everything, since he loves (and demands!) attention, and he had lots of opportunities to play with his cousins. Every holiday activity with MOMS Club ended up being cancelled (more than once) due to the lousy weather we kept having.

This year it was really fun to see James so excited about Christmas! He really "got" it this year. He was able to tell Santa that he wanted a kitchen, a hammer, and candy (all of which he got) rather than crying at being placed on the lap of a big stranger. He was excited to leave out a cupcake for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, and then see them gone in the morning. He also really enjoyed digging in everyone's stockings to see what we got, as well as ripping off the wrapping paper on presents. And, I was really proud of him for leaving the presents under the tree alone until it was Christmas. The only time he bothered them at all was when one of the recipients came over and he tried to give them their present right away. It was very cute.

After last year's gingerbread house of horrors http://stillheather.blogspot.com/2007/12/better-late-than-never.html , I got us a very simple gingerbread train this year. It was fun to decorate, although James kept trying to eat all the candy. Last year, it was Blake who did that.

And, our family ornament exchange was up a level this year: all of the ones we gave each other ended up being sets. I got Blake a set of recycled motherboard ornaments from ThinkGeek.com. James got a 4-piece shatterproof train set. And Blake gave me a set of 3 Thomas Kinkade ornaments that are just beautiful!

There were two downsides this year. One was last Monday. We awoke at 5:10am to the fire alarms going off. James and I had been through this a few days before, so I knew what it was, but it was a first for Blake, who had been at work the last time. It was very cold out and a water pipe had broken. Both times the problem started in the same apartment, which makes me think they didn't fix it very well the first time. The first time, it broke and flooded the apartment upstairs and across the "hall" from us, then came down to flood our neighbor's apartment. They were able to get it under control before it got to us. Not so lucky when it happened in the middle of the night. I think both residents were gone at the time, the response time was slower, and our apartment flooded, too. Nothing important was ruined, other than our day. Blake was late to work, since no one helped us with the water control (they were busy in the other apartments) and he had to use the shop vac. And I spent the day washing and rewashing the wet stuff we used to soak up the water, mopping, putting some of what we had to move back, and taking care of James, who had a stomach bug. And getting ready for Mom to arrive. We had very very noisy fans and a dehumidifier going for the next several days, but all seems to be well now.

The other bad thing was that I caught James' stomach bug on Christmas Eve. So, I missed everything on Christmas Day, except for getting out of bed for a bit to open stockings and presents. The upside is that when I weighed myself yesterday, I'd lost 5 pounds. So, if I can get the stomach flu 2 more times, I might get to my goal weight.

All in all, it has been a wonderful holiday, although Blake wants to quarantine us for the month of December next year so no one gets sick.

And the runner up is . . .

http://www.ellabridals.com/collection/index.php/gowns/publicView/84

I finally went shopping for my wedding dress. Just in time, since it takes about 16 weeks to come in, possibly longer because of the Chinese New Year. (So, apparently I am getting a politically incorrect dress.) The link above is the dress that I went in preferring, as did Lori and Blake. And it was very nice. But, there was another that was perfect for me (ok, it will be perfect, after probably a few hundred dollars worth of alterations). I can't/won't show the link to that dress, though. Blake doesn't get to see until the wedding day. It is a little bit of a shame that I didn't choose the first one, though, because Blake said that he would have to get me a nice necklace to go with it. But the dress I chose does call for some earrings!

It was a huge relief to get that done. I had been nervous and procrastinating, and it really was easy. So, the wedding plans really are starting to come together nicely. Since I am not a good planner of much of this stuff, I am so relieved that we chose a ceremony/reception site that includes much of what we need. Next, flowers, food, and favors!

An interesting photo, because I was tagged

So, Cara (who sent me a very fun secret santa gift!) tagged me for a photo game. I had to go to my 4th photo file and choose the 4th photo and blog about it. THIS IS NOT IT. But, it is from the same day, and I will explain. This is right after we got the new camera last spring. We started potty training with James. The 4th photo was of the him looking cute posing in his new big boy underpants, which I really don't want floating around the internet. This photo was on the same day, documenting another aspect of potty training -- the increased amount of mopping and laundry that had to be done during that period. We ended up giving up on the potty training within a week, started again in August, and now all is well. I am back to the regular amount of mopping and laundry.

So, to tag 4 more people. Sorry, participate if you would like :)

Rachel

Beth

Blake, who has the same photo files as me, but maybe c0uld amend the rules a bit . . .

and Danielle, who hasn't blogged in a while :)

Our love is so SHOCKING!

I thought this was pretty funny. Last night, Blake and I gave each other a little kiss in the living room. As our lips met, we got a big shock! Of course, I've also been getting shocks when I touch the baker's rack, the DVR, and various other things around here, so maybe it's not really a statement on our romance.

I'll set up the humidifier today and see if that helps.

In other news . . . happy birthday, Rod Blagojevich! What did you wish for?

Know Why?

That is James' newest thing. He says it almost at the end of every statement. He used to just say it, now he follows it up with "because it's fun", or more recently, "because it's not fun" (if applicable).

We have had a lot of fun lately, with many family events over the Thanksgiving weekend. And Blake's birthday before that. And a few get-togethers the week before that. I am so horribly behind on blogging that I am not even going to try to catch up. We have really been enjoying ourselves, but now we've been sick this week. I think it's our bodies' way of trying to get us back to normal. Kind of like "if you don't slow down, I'm going to shut you down". So, there's been a whole lot of nothing going on here the last couple of days.

The good news for me about being sick is that Blake bought Tetris for me last weekend. Which means that as James naps and I don't really have energy for anything else, I can sit on the sofa and play Tetris. With slightly less guilt than if I did this at another time.

Our plans for the weekend look pretty low key, unless we decide to go see Santa. Which we should, since the lines will get longer the longer we procrastinate. And we need a tree. Which I enjoy very much.

So, I guess the moral of my blogging story lately is . . . if there are fun things happening in my life, I will likely not blog about it because I'm busy having fun. When things are boring, I blog. Go figure.