Another successful holiday season down. It’s amazing how you run the marathon for a month, and before you know it, it’s all over! We had a great season this year. Christmas Eve I had a short run to the hospital so I could do my non-stress test and BP check. Once that was complete (and good) we went over to sis-in-law’s house for dinner and presents. This year we decided to just buy for the kids – and that was great. There’s so many of us now that we’d all be broke feeling like we had to buy for everyone. Aunt Danielle bought the boys suits of armor. The sword fight was fast and furious. They had a great time!

Robin, my other sister-in-law, is only a couple of days ahead of me in terms of gestation. Our original due dates are only a couple of days apart!

We went back home so I could rest for an hour then we were on our way to Nate’s mom’s house. My sister came with all of us – it’s so great that Nate’s family not only accepts me into their lives as their own, but they accept Jenn, too, just because she’s my sister. Maysen had a great time but the kids were about fried at this point. Believe it or not, Maysen had a harder time staying patient between present opening – so he started helping Grandma hand out presents and was actually more content being the Helper than he was at opening his presents!

Maysen was over-exhausted and cried during his whole bath. It was then my idea to bundle him up and go outside to see if we could see Santa up in the air. That was a soother-idea and he bought it. We came in and laid out the cookies and milk. There was a bit of an “incident” with MY Christmas cookies so I had to grab spares from Danielle’s house. Jenn, Maysen, and I baked the night prior and I was starting to hurt so got a bit side tracked. I forgot the baking soda and after 13 min of being in the oven, discovered nothing but a melted-dough mess on the sheet. (Unfortunately didn’t grab the camera for that … too much evidence).

I woke up earlier than everyone else Christmas morning. I was afraid Mase would get up and see the presents and I wanted to watch him see them, since this was the first year he really understood the meaning behind the “theory” of Santa. We finally went and woke him up – only to be greeted with “I don’t want to see my presents”. Oh really?! Well, after 30 seconds of thinking twice he was ready for action. The first thing he saw was his dump truck – that he had seen previously by accident and we convinced him it was Grandpa’s “tool” he had left behind a few weeks ago.

One of the gifts we’d been very excited to give to Maysen was his drivable race car. He has been driving the neighbor girls’ Barbie car, so it was time he got his own. We bought him a STOP sign – hey, we’re teaching him early. So we put that up before the garage door and I said “What’s this stop sign doing here? Who stops at stop signs?” … “CARS!” and then he opened the door and saw his car. He was so excited, it was priceless.

I can say that I’m more prepared for Griffin to show up any day now because I feel like now I can focus on him and not be distracted by other events going on (ie: holidays, etc). Today we got our tree taken down and the house back to “normal”. Thanks to Papa and Sherrill taking Mase to Portland today, Nathan and I – er … wait, I’m on bedrest (eh-hem) NATHAN got the whole house cleaned. I think we’re prepared. I have my doctor appointment tomorrow – and I have a hunch my BP will be up. So, again – if you don’t hear from me, you know that our Baby Griffin is here and I’ll post as soon as I’m allowed.

Please view my Flickr site for full Christmas 2007 pictures.