How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was very quiet. I cooked dinner for the two of us (a rather strange feeling compared to my traditional Thanksgiving experiences) but it was yummy. Then, we headed off to see a movie. Even though it didn't exactly feel like Thanksgiving, it was wonderful to have Anthony around all day. Having a whole day together is an experience that happens pretty much only on holidays and vacation. Even when it is just the two of us, it is still "spending Thanksgiving with family." After our movie we headed over to Brian and Vonda's for turkey sandwiches and pie. Mmmm.

Well, the nursery is ready, all the baby's laundry is done, the bags are packed, the car seat is in the car, we are pre-registered at the hospital, our midwives have my birth plan, the cell phone is packed full of phone numbers, the phone card has been recharged, the Thank You's from our showers have been written, the camera has new batteries and extra memory cards, Anthony has a fresh haircut, the dishes are done, the floors have been vacuumed/swept, the Christmas decorations are up, and now we are just waiting. Anything you can think of that I missed?

Little Brad has been calling me giving me updates on his status of preparedness over the last couple of weeks. He has been all packed and ready to come to "Juwie's house to take care of Juwie's baby" now for a while. There was a little scare in there when he didn't have enough vitamins left and they had to wait for his "bears" to come in the mail, but since they came he has been telling me each time he called that he is coming here in "3 days... Juwie's baby sweeping." Apparently he is being coached a bit on what to expect. He has been to some of the showers and has also been staying with us at times and helped me put everything away from the showers, so he thinks that every present is for Juwie's baby....even the ones at Hobby Lobby! It has been pretty fun to see his excitement in it all. I think he is going to do really well when the little Bambino does make his arrival here.

To me, Thanksgiving is the kick off for a "Season of Giving Thanks." So, in light of that, I have put up all my Christmas decorations (well, as much as I am likely to do this year). I love this time of year with all the beautiful lights, music, and decorations. Setting our tree up is like looking through a scrapbook of memories. We started a tradition several years ago of buying an ornament as a vacation souvenir. Each year as we put of the tree, we re-live the memories. It has been a very neat experience. Our tree reflects our stages of life... we have an ornament of our first Christmas together, our first house, the many places we have been along the way, and of course, new this year is our "Baby's First Christmas" ornament (Thanks Jody!). I am looking forward to seeing how the tree progresses over the years.

This all started with ornaments given to each member of my family by Aunt LaVila and Uncle Paul every year. Growing up we would get a package and open it up as a family to see the theme for the year. Then, as we decorated the tree all together, Mom would pass out our ornaments to hang from past years. When we moved out on our own, Mom gave us each our set of ornaments, representing close to 20 years of memories. It has been such a special thing for me, that I want to see the tradition continue. It is a good thing we have a 7' tree though! We are starting to get quite a collection of ornaments.

Last weekend we had a Girl's Slumber party at our house. Here's a picture of the group that braved the all night movies and junk food. We will definitely have to do that again. It was a blast!