Holiday 2011 Recap

I'm a little (OK, a lot) behind, but wanted to catch up with a quick post on the holidays. With the doctor's approval, we flew back to Portland and spent Christmas with my side of the family. It was a fun few days with lots of time spent visiting and catching up with family.

On the 23rd of December, my grandmother organized a "ladies luncheon" for all of the aunts and cousins at a club in downtown Portland. Here we all are before lunch:

We spent a quiet Christmas Eve at home with my immediate family, including my sister and brother-in-law down from Seattle, and my brother and sister-in-law who live in Portland, as well as my other grandparents, who were up from Coos Bay (a small town on the southern Oregon coast.) Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner is always a big pot of Swiss cheese fondue and a fresh salad. It was as delicious as usual.

On Christmas morning, a few of us attended a 7:30am Christmas Mass (and, yes, that was a little painfully early), and then came home to open gifts beneath the tree and eat brunch. Later in the day, we had a few visitors over for cocktails and appetizers, and then enjoyed Christmas dinner.

(J and I in front of the Christmas carnage tree. And yes, that black dress is officially the MVP of my maternity wardrobe.)

The day after Christmas, J's parents drove down from Seattle to spend the day with us. We opened a few more gifts with them (and were completely spoiled), enjoyed a nice lunch out, and then they came back to my parents' house for cookies and coffee before hitting the road back to Seattle. It was a quick trip for them, and a lot of driving for a 24 hour period, but so nice to see them and catch up in person before the baby arrives.

Jason and I headed back to Austin on the 27th, and were both lucky enough to have the week between Christmas and New Year's off of work. We spent the rest of that week laying around watching movies, doing some housework and final baby prep, and just enjoying the quiet before our lives change in a few weeks.

We rang in 2012 at our friends' house-- miraculously, I made it to midnight-- and now here we are in the final countdown to baby: less than 3 weeks to go! 2012 will be a wild ride, and nothing short of amazing, I'm sure.