Thanksgiving - Christmas - New Year 2011

Thanksgiving - we went over to the Christensen's for a late lunch meal. their mom was cooking a family recipe so no turkey this year. the missionaries were there and the family even invited another non-member family. we all ended up watching the Loins, but alas, they lost. this would have been a good year for Detroit as they had a positive record, but no go. plus they were playing Green Bay... no contest really.
so we got a tree... we were planing on a smaller one, but found that even little real trees can be expensive - $20 for a small, $30 for a regular size... i mean, come on - might as well buy the bigger one! we got it from a local florist so our thought was also helping the community. at least it fit in the element and we just had to sweep out the needles after....

i even got dinah to pose under it. she is such a good dog and learned to sit, stay, and stand up while john was away. we had a little Christmas at home with my parent's and other family gifts that were sent. baby stuff, a fancy NOEL nativity, a huge red bag, a maternity shirt, and baby's first hand/foot print. i really missed my family this year as it was the first without anyone from my family. we spent actual Christmas with john's family in Idaho, and, again, WE... included dinah. john and i stayed at his Grandma S's house. it was really nice to spend time with her and get to know her better. she really enjoyed having dinah and we all thought that her having a pet would be good for her. dinah didn't really have a good time as she got fleas from john's parent's cats. his mom was not happy bout that, but i wasn't either. we spent most of saturday before Christmas using flea powder and giving the cats flea treatments. we spent more time at grandma's house after that... Christmas morning was fun to visit john's home ward. people are so excited for us and his family for the baby (i was barely showing). plus it was good when everyone seemed to enjoy how his life is turning out and how proud they were of him. i did learn alot about my hubby on this trip - his friends (drunkards and mormons) - more about his dad and mom - more about his childhood... all sorts of stuff.

Oh and speaking of stuff - we got alot, and alot of baby stuff!! we may already be set with clothes.

also, I want to mention, this Christmas had a little bit more significance than previous as i was able to picture and know what a prego Mary was feeling and truly understand a "leaping in the womb". what would have it been like to carry the 'Light of the World'....

Celebrating the New Year with the Thompsons and the Lapierres. we played games - mostly Uno - and watched The Smurfs movie. the movie included a new parent story... so john and i had some good laughs. he saw it while in GTMO and wanted to watch it again with me. now i see why. he will be a good dad.

after the movie, we went home and were in bed before midnight. the year ended and a new year began all in one sleeping night...