Down for the count

Since I last posted our lives have been a whirlwind of activity. We spent over a week up in Dallas celebrating Christmas with both sides of the family. It was wonderful, and as usual it was hard to leave...but duty calls, and Aaron had to go back to work!

Yesterday morning I had the procedure to "sew the baby in" so that I can carry it to term. I had this same surgery with Johnathan so I knew what to expect---and in fact I was looking forward to going under---the feeling of being out of it and coming to is quite interesting! ;) So far everything is going well, and I am actually feeling a lot better than I did when I had this done the last time. The baby is doing well, and I got to hear it's sweet little heartbeat a couple of times yesterday. The previous day when I had my pre-op visit we even got to see it's precious little form via the sonogram...I'll have to post pics of that as soon as I get my "lazy" booty off of the couch! Oh, and speaking of my being lazy, I am so grateful that I have my wonderful mother in law here with me right now to help with Johnathan. I have to take it easy for the next week, so my MIL drove down Sunday to help us out, and then my sweet mommy is coming Saturday to stay until I can be up and about like normal. Aren't I blessed?!!! It's always sort of tough to accept help....even when you really need it...so I am learning to be humble and to graciously receive the care from people who love me.

I feel like I could go on and on about things right now...that's what laying around being lazy does to me...but for now I'll just jot down a few of the highlights of our Christmas vacation.

-Saturday the 19th marked the 6th anniversary of our sweet Gideon's homecoming to Heaven. We spent that day with Aaron's family, and had a wonderful (and delicious) Christmas celebration with them. One of the traditions in Aaron's family is the Christmas tamale dinner...and boy oh boy was it GOOD!!! I was really looking forward to that this year, and I was not let down. Everything was absolutely delicious!

-Monday the 21st we attended the surprise 80th birthday party for my Papa. All of his kids were there with their families and almost all of his 20+ grandkids were able to make it. We had a great time eating pizza and dancing and just honoring our sweet Papa. It was wonderful.

-Tuesday/Wednesday was cousin time at my folks' house. Johnathan dubbed his younger cousin, Levi, with the name "Elmo"...the first time he saw him little Levi was in a bright red sleeper, so I told Johnathan, "Look, it's Elmo"...and it stuck! Johnathan enjoyed the time he got to spend with his older cousin, Miles, and everyone else in the house got to see those two little guys get into a ton of mischief together---they even tried to sneak out of the house and got to the driveway all by themselves before we realized what they had just done! They were a handful, but they sure did have fun together.

-Thursday we braved the ice and snow to travel to my grandmother's Christmas Eve party. It took at least double the normal amount of time to get there, but it was worth it to be able to join in on one of the longest running traditions in my family. I just love going to my grandmother's Christmas Eve...it just wouldn't seem like Christmas without it!

-Friday of course was Christmas! We spent the morning opening stockings and enjoying my mom's Christmas morning breakfast...another tradition! I even made Johnathan his very own Christmas breakfast casserole (because of his milk/dairy allergy) so he was able to join in on the yumminess! Friday afternoon we visited the firehouse where my sister Gwen's husband works. We got a few cute pics of Johnathan on Uncle Matt's Fire Engine, and we enjoyed being able to bring some Christmas cheer to Matt as he worked his shift.

So there you go, just a few of the highlights of our trip. I'm sure I'll be back on here soon since I will be laying low the next week or so. Happy almost New Year!

*Grace*