How we're Spending the Holidays...

Daily naps have been a must around here lately. Lexi's are few and far between, but I'm down for the count more than I'm awake lately. Today finds me entering my 11th week of pregnancy, and there seems to be no let up of the exhaustion and the all day, worse in the evening nausea. We are all thrilled at the prospect of adding to our family in July, especially after suffering a late first trimester loss last year. I have had an ultrasound already, and heard the heartbeat via doppler last week at my doctor's office. I start the day looking about, oh, 11 weeks pregnant, and finish the day looking about 6 months pregnant. There will be no hiding this belly soon.

We had a fabulous Christmas - lots of good food and company. Most of the pictures were taken on Doug's iPhone, so once we get those off I'll post them. We were all spoiled, Lexi most of all, and are looking forward to another week off before getting back to the grind on January 4th. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Homemade Love n' Goodness

We spent some time with my mom yesterday, who always celebrates her birthday on the shortest day of the year (what a rip off!). And how does she decide to spend her day? Baking bread. From scratch. She does NOT use a bread maker (which I used to do every week, and felt quite smug about it actually). This is a loaf of her molasses raisin bread, which Lexi and I promptly tucked into as soon as we got home. Thanks Mom!



My second bit of homemade lovely goodness to share is this awesome lunchbag made by my talented friend Kim. You can check out more of her amazing work here. I can't wait to take my lunch to work in this come the New Year. Thanks Kim!

T minus 3 days to go! We are really excited about Christmas here. I finally finished my shopping yesterday morning, and true to form, Doug has left all his until the last minute. Last night we watched The Polar Express and Lexi really loved it. It's nice that she has reached an age where we can sit as a family and watch a movie together, which is a tradition we hope to continue on Friday nights as she gets older. We've got mostly mellow, quiet Christmas plans this year, which is lovely, and we'll be spending a quiet New Year's with friends as well. Stay tuned for some sure to be amazing pictures of Lexi on Christmas morning!

Look what Santa Left Under my Tree Today...

I swear I did not put her into the basket. Best gift ever!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS! We were eager this year and put up the tree the last weekend in November. Combined with the snazzy electric fireplace we bought for our living room a few weeks back, it's looking pretty festive here right now. Next on the list is a piece for our front door, and finishing the Christmas shopping. Cookie exchange is set for this weekend. I'll be doing my mom's traditional Midnight Mint Chocolate Squares.

I took my class to Burnaby Village Museum this past week on a field trip and they had a great time. I was absolutely stuck by one house display when I eyed this beautiful old clock EXACTLY like the one my Grampy Wilcox had on his mantel for years. It's eerie when things like this happen to give you a little reminder that just because those you love aren't 'around' anymore, they still have ways of sneaking into the present when you least expect it.

Homemade Advent Love

What would Christmas be without an Advent calendar? You know the ones with the crappy chocolates in the flimsy cardboard punchout frame. I've HEARD that you can get Lindt ones, but that would completely defeat the purpose of punching out one measley chocolate per day when obviously if I was presented a whole box of Lindt goodness it would be gone immediately.

We hadn't done one with Lexi before, and while I'm not opposed to the idea of daily chocolate (live it, learn it folks), I'm not so keen on the idea for young children. Nana came to the rescue for us and made Lexi her own version of the calendar. The pockets are big enough for chocolates, small toys and everybody's favourite gift, money. Lexi's calendar contains stickers, a few tiny toys scattered about, and a quarter for each day (with the big payout coming on Christmas day at a whopping 2 bucks). I think it's lovely. Lexi is so eager to get her present each morning.

My friend Kim did an amazing version of an Advent calendar as well. I hang my head in shame to be surrounded by such talent.