Christmas, New Years and Exciting Times

Collin in his new jacket and cowboy boot house shoes.

His new fish tank

Whoo hoo! A new car!

We spent Christmas at home. It was a blessing to have Eric's parents and Todd be here with us. On Christmas Eve, we had planned on them getting here around 10am and then having lunch with Mark, Lisa and the kids. They went to the lake the night before and the weather was fine. (in hindsight they should have driven here that night) On Christmas Eve morning they started their journey around 8am, only to drive in a blizzard. Yes, I said blizzard. It was white-outs, lots of snow, and they could only drive 10-20 mph. At some points I think it was even slower. It took them until 4:30pm to arrive (it should have been a 2 and a half hour drive). They were exhausted when they finally got to the house. They got to see the McMaster's for a little while before they had to head out to do more Christmas Eve with Mark's family. Then we had dinner. We had Christmas Eve dinner planned because the original plan was that they were going to go see Jim, Missy and their kiddos on Christmas day. They decided with the crazy weather and after their drive in it to our house that they couldn't make that trip. I remember it snowing when we lived in the McKinney area around Christmas...I can't remember what year that was. I have some pictures of Blaze and Todd out in it! However, they say this is the first snow in 83 years in North Texas on Christmas. It was very cool to have a white Christmas. On Christmas morning it was cool to see Collin's eyes light up with all of his gifts from Santa. It's also very cool that he knows it is the birth of Jesus Christ that we are celebrating.

For New Years Eve we just stayed home. We had fun letting CC stay up to watch the ball drop (on the eastern time zone) So, at 11 he watched it drop and then he dropped pretty soon after that. Eric and I toasted with some sparkling grape juice, which was tasty! Kissed at midnight and then off to bed for us. We got up on New Years day and had our traditional meal of fried chicken, corn bread and black-eyed peas.

As of tomorrow I will be 17 weeks pregnant. I am feeling pretty good and feeling my belly starting to stretch out. On Monday, the 4th, I felt the baby move! It was very sweet...that is one of the sweetest things about being pregnant. When we first found out I was pregnant we had decided not to find out the sex of the baby. We think it will be a neat surprise. Plus, we now know that the room doesn't have to be ready, all you need are a few essential items like diapers and onesies or t-shirts. So, we didn't think it would be hard. However, the closer it gets for me to find out the more anxious I get. I thought Eric would be the one to want to find out, but he says it's up to me. Here are my reasons for possibly changing my mind: having a newborn and a 2 year old might keep me too busy to start on a nursery, I don't know how I will be able to go and shop for all little girl things if that's what I'm having, I think it might better prepare CC if we can tell him we are bringing home a boy or girl, and I can figure out what I need to keep of Collin's stuff and what I can get rid of. Anyhow, that is what has been on my mind. Plus, I talked to a friend that didn't find out and she said it was neat, but that it's kind of tough because you have to tell them every time you get a sono so that they don't slip. Also, if your Dr knows they might slip...so I'm worried that someone might slip and then I would be devastated to find out that way! That is probably silly to worry about, but it's something I have on my mind. Who knew there was so much to it! haha.