Christmas!!!

Matt and I just returned from a short trip back to California to celebrate Christmas with our families. Although I was 34 weeks along, and both Matt and my Dad didn't really want me to travel "just in case", I was determined to celebrate Christmas with family. Thankfully all turned out great, and Baby B decided not to make an early entrance!

I arrived in California on Tuesday night and spent Wednesday and Thursday running errands, trying to avoid the rain (on Wednesday), getting my hair done (very high priority!!), having our annual dinner with my friends and wrapping lots of gifts! Dinner with my friends was great and we were commenting how different the dinner has changed over the years... when we started most of us were single (except Tammy and Sau of course, who have been married the whole time we've known them), so there was usually a lot of drinking going on! Now both Nicole and I are married and both Nicole and Tammy have young children... and we of course have one coming shortly! So now the dinners are about catching up and presents for the kids.

Matt arrived late on Thursday night... he didn't want to take time off work this year since he'll be taking a week or two at the end of January when the baby arrives. So he really had a short trip out! On Friday, Christmas Eve, Matt and I got a chance to visit with one of his close friends, Garret (who married us) and was out visiting his family from Washington DC. It was great to see him and catch up... although whenever Matt and Garret get together, topics turn politics and the economy and I often am lost! Afterwards, we headed to Gretta's for dinner with Matt's family. Gretta did a beautiful job of setting a gorgeous table (although we forgot to take a picture of it!) and we had a really nice time with Gretta, Joseph, Maggie and Matt's cousins, Jose, Gay and Amanda. Normally Matt's family has everyone open gifts all at once, which can make it a bit chaotic and hard to see what people are getting (our family does one at a time), but this year everyone opened gifts one at a time and it was great to get to see their reactions!

Christmas Day is at my parents house. We start the day with my favorite... my Mom's Eggs Benedict... nothing better! Then Bethany, Ryan and Shaye came over in the early afternoon and we opened gifts. In addition to the educational gift Bethany requested for Shaye, we got her two Sesame Elmo and Abby dolls that were just her size.... She loved them and I loved it!!!

Bethany and I also ended up getting my Mom the same gift... the new Kindle! Every year we usually talk to each other about what to get our parents... except this year of course! So I cracked up when I saw my Mom open the Kindle from Bethany and Ryan. At least we also bough her a case for the Kindle, so she got something from us! She actually ended up giving the Kindle we gave her to her Dad for a very early birthday gift, so it worked out great for everyone!

Christmas dinner included many more family including my Grandpa, Uncle Matt, Uncle Jeff and his family. We had a great time catching up, watching Shaye and Sylus play and talk about the pending arrival of Baby B.

Overall it was a great trip and we really enjoyed our time with family! Now we are back home, and will be spending time getting ready for Baby B to join us!