Christmas

Our Christmas holiday was VERY busy. I'd say it officially kicked off on the 20th with our work Christmas party. It was held at the local country club and the food was awesome. There is traditionally a spoof video and this year was the best yet. They had several employees spoof "The Office" episode of the dundees. It was hilarious and complete with the same opening except with scenes from around our office and Greenville. Another great thing about the Christmas party this year was paid babysitting at the CC. Greta was just down the hall from us so we got a nice break from watching her but she was close enough by to check on. She did really well - I didn't have to go in there once. I was surprised how well she did with strangers and even fell asleep without Mommy.

Next on our agenda was Christmas Eve festivities with Graham's moms family. We ate at his Great Aunts house (I took Hot Fruit & Lima Beans). The tradition is to exchange names and purchase a $25 present and then bring a gag gift. We took cash, a beard trimmer, and a tomagatchi 4.5 (all requested) as our presents and received earrings (me), a circuit city gift card (Graham), and a Learning Puppy (Greta). We didn't stay for the gag gift exchange as it was Greta's bedtime but our present (a Spice Girls CD I got free with purchase at VS) was fought over quite a bit.

Christmas Morning Graham's immediate family ate breakfast at our house and then opened presents. We had tons of food and tons of gifts. Our big present was the stroller I posted about here. I was also pleased to get 2 Ann Taylor Loft giftcards. Christmas dinner was next door at Graham's sisters house and we ate like kings. Graham and I fixed a pot roast in our new crockpot as our old one had just died.

Graham and I spent the next few days painting our living room. Trying to paint with a little baby in the house is not easy. It did not go near as quickly as previous paint jobs mainly because the majority of the time only one of us was working.

The weekend was spent in Hoschton with Momma and Daddy and celebrating Christmas with them. We had a wonderful relaxing weekend. It was very low key which was nice after all the hoopla earlier in the week. We ate friday evening at our FAVORITE mexican restaurant. Greta was so well behaved. She sat in her carseat very happily. Saturday evening we opened gifts and then had a lovely dinner of heavy hors d'oeuvres which were very tasty. Greta received a lot of books from her Mimi and Grandaddy which we have been enjoying reading. I also received another Ann Taylor Loft giftcard and a giftcard to our local spa.

We returned home Sunday evening to a messy house (the painting still wasn't done). We finished up painting on Monday and started to put stuff back together. We're still working on that as we wanted to change the layout of the room but it has proven rather difficult given the type of couch we have and the shape of the room. I'm trying out the new arrangement for a while to see how I like it.

Christmas Wishes

Christmas sure has changed this year. Several of the items on our wish list are "baby" items rather than personal items for us. If you'd told me last year I'd have a stroller and baby carrier on my wish list along side requests for clothes and spa gift certificates I'd have told you you were crazy! We're asking for this:

and this:

for Christmas. Any opinions on the color for the carrier?

Thankful...for an immune system and other random things

I spent my Thanksgiving weekend on the couch with various cold systems - you know, cough, runny nose, sneezing etc. It started the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving and I'm still suffering some ill effects but the worst of it was gone by Monday. I was very generous and shared the fun with Graham. His immune system must be better than mine as his has not lasted as long or been as severe.

We've decided to go a bit minimalistic with our Christmas decorations this year. Our normal christmas tree is 9 feet tall and takes quite a bit to get it up and decorated. We went to Garden Ridge after thanksgiving and bought a small pre-lit tabletop tree. My other Christmas purchase was a nativity scene. I have been looking for one for a while but always made the mistake of waiting until after Christmas to try to purchase one and the selection was very limited. I looked online and found gorgeous sets with matching prices. Who pays $2000 for a nativity scene? I hit up Walmart this afternoon and found one more within my budget and am very pleased. I'm hoping to get some pictures of our Christmas decorations this weekend to post on the blog.

To add to this random post I recently got a new crock pot. My previous crock-pot was a handmedown from my great-grandmother who had gotten it for Christmas many moons ago and had used it maybe once or twice. The pot still worked but it was small, did not have the removable crock and the knob to switch temperatures broke so you had to use pliers to flip temperatures. Graham investigated our options and we decided on a 30 dollar crock pot at Target. It doesn't have many of the fancy features but does have a warm option in addition to low and high. My main request was something larger (our new one is 6 qts) and a removable crock (which this one has). Additional features I like are a carrying case, clips to lock the lid to the pot when travling and a spoon holder in the lid. I've also enjoyed breaking in my new crock pot with new recipes. I made a mean minestrone a few weeks ago to share with J&J and the sunday before thanksgiving I made a very tasty chicken tortilla soup. Both recipes came from this cookbook.