Dan & JillTaking it one day at a time…

Okay, this will be a short one tonight (*gasp* I know!) as I’ll mostly let the pictures do the talking.  Finally got the art/collage wall mostly complete.  Have 3.5 to finish.  I won’t go into details as I will post a complete picture of the wall once all is done.  The wall with the dresser got a shelf, still needs one more, plus a small mirror, and then we need to hang our boat “port” window my mom gave us (again – you’ll see that later).  Dan’s working on his art for above the crib and some other touches that he wants to add.

The latest steal of a deal my mom found at Goodwill!  Bassinet for Finn while he sleeps in our room.  Eddie Bauer wooden bassinet brand new = +$200.  Mom got it for $27 with her senior discount.  Sahweeeeet!  We added the blue ribbon and she’ll be making some mattress pad covers to match it once we get the mattress which is the only thing it was missing.

Shelf with the start of his book library, some knick knacks, our lamp, and I framed our beautiful shower invitations that Julie made because I loved them so much!  Oh and the baby book Dan got me for Christmas to fill out.  And the wooden train mom gave me.

Aaaaand our art wall.  Too tired to go into too much detail about it.  I will make a whole another post on each picture’s special meaning.  And as you can seem 3 pictures aren’t even done.  1 is only halfway done, but you wouldn’t know it.  Yay!  ALMOST COMPLETELY DONE WITH THE ROOM. I can’t believe it.  But am so happy and excited.

I don’t know what else to call what we’re having other than a BABY CELEBRATION!  From the beginning I knew I wouldn’t want a traditional baby shower where it’s just the girls.  I really thought that a pregnancy is something for the couple to enjoy and celebrate together.  I wanted Dan to be a part of everything we did, and I think he’s really glad of that.  He would have been fine if I wanted it to be just a girls thing, but I think he’s really excited about being included and able to celebrate with everybody as well.  We’re pretty non-traditional anyways, hence why we decided to get married in Cancun.

Our very good friends, Julie and Jason, who we went to Europe with and we pretty much do everything with, so generously offered to throw us a “shower”, along with our parents.  We are so thankful and can’t believe that Julie was so willing and happy to do this for us.  And in such a short time!  We decided to have it on the 21st because Dan’s aunt, uncle, and 2 cousins will be visiting then so it worked out perfect.  This is such an amazingly generous gift, considering that she had just had a baby on December 17th and is a brand new mom!  She made the cutest invites (seriously, they blew me away – I may just have to take a few pics to show them off!), sent save-the-dates, and has been doing all the planning.  I just can’t begin to express how grateful we are.  My parents and Jayne are taking care of all the food and prep.  Dan and I are just really, really lucky to have the best friends and family out there!!!  We are so looking forward to this Saturday.

Anyways, so we invited all our close friends and in-state family.  I would have loved to have had our entire family from out-of-state as well be there, but my mom felt really leary about sending invitations and having it look like we were just asking for gifts when we knew they wouldn’t be able to come.  Ugh, but I also really did want them to get an invitation because they were ADORABLE!  When really, if we did send them, it would have been because we wanted them to know that we would have LOVED for them to be there, not about getting a gift at all.  It would have been AWESOME if my mom’s sisters, all our cousins, and my grandparents could have been there to celebrate with us.  Oh and Crystal, too!  We’re just so excited about Finn and want to share that excitement and this celebration with everybody!!!  That’s what this is about for us.

We’re having a BBQ in a park, except it’s not a barbeque.  We’re doing a “taco bar” where people can make their own tacos and that way nobody is stuck being responsible for grilling for the whole event.  My parents will cook/prep everything at home, load it up in crock pots to keep it warm, and wah-lah!  For desserts we’re doing cupcakes.  My good friend/co-worker, KT started a cupcake business and so we’re supporting her new business venture and getting yummy cupcakes out of it, too.  They’re so good, I can’t wait to share them with everybody!

Again – we’re just so excited just to celebrate with anybody and everybody that can come, that’s just how we are!!!  And you know I’ll make sure to update the site with pics from the celebration!

I snapped a couple pictures of the adorable invites – Julie put so much time into them:

Well, here we are in the third trimester.  Actually been there a few weeks, but I’m slacking on the updates of course.  10 weeks left!  If that.  I have really slacked on taking pictures as the pregnancy progresses, period.  What I’ve posted on this blog is all I’ve got!  12 weeks, 18ish weeks, 23ish or something weeks, and now 30 weeks.  Oh well.  Let me do a run down of how the pregnancy has gone.

I didn’t really talk about it or tell anybody because I didn’t want it to be a big deal until it had to be, but at my 18 week ultrasound they found that I had a marginal placenta previa.  Which basically meant that the placenta attached itself really close to the cervix, and not at the ideal spot which is  the top of the uterus.  These are fairly common in women, but most of the time as the uterus expands they move up the side and out of the way for baby’s exit.  They can be bad if they don’t move or if they’re right on or touching the cervix because when labor begins it causes a lot of bleeding and can be life threatening for both baby and mother.  They don’t do vaginal deliveries if this is the case, it’s solely C-section.  So… they wanted to check mine again between 26-28 weeks to make sure it moved up and if not, I would have had to go on bed rest until about week 36 and then they would have done a planned C-section.  Luckily, at 26.5 weeks it was in the CLEAR!  It needed to be 2.5cm away from the cervix for a normal delivery, and mine was 3.5cm away.  So, good news.  Still, really weird that ONE CENTIMETER makes that big of a difference, but I’ll take it!  Everything on that front is good.

Another thing that was found recently was that my thyroid was slightly hypo!  Totally bizarre.  I see an endocrinologist for my PCOS already (the same one Dan sees for his hypothyroid) and he does bloodwork every 3 months and I’ve never had a high or low thyroid.  To my knowledge.  So, they repeated bloodwork and then wanted me to see the perinatologist again to assess that.  I saw him 2 weeks after my 26.5 week ultrasound where they did another and he put me on a very low dose of Synthroid, the same medicine Dan takes for his thyroid, only a much, much lower dose.  Mine was barely hypo and the doc said that normally an endocrinologist wouldn’t treat it (it was .79 and should be +.80), but because he’s a perinatologist and is concerned with 2 patients, both mother and baby, he didn’t want to take any chances because a low thyroid can have an affect on baby’s IQ and development.  Sooo… on that med now.  And he said after baby is born I likely wouldn’t need it, but we’ll have to keep checking my blood to determine that.

Okay what else… weight-wise I’m feeling pretty good.  I’ve gained 19.6 pounds.  And weirdly enough, haven’t gained anything since December 21st! I somehow made it out alive during the holidays!  Finn is definitely still gaining though, so they aren’t worried.  He went from 2.2lbs at 26.5 weeks to 3.3lbs at 29 weeks.  I know my weight gain will start picking back up here, probably now, as the books tell me that I will gain 1lb a week until the end.  That puts me right where the doctors wanted me to be at, between 25-35lbs total.  So, we’ll see how that ends up.  I feel pretty good that all my weight gain has been in my belly.  My arms, legs, butt, and chest are still pretty much the same.  My face is hard to tell as it’s always chubby (got those famous chubby cheeks and double chin I’ve had since I was a toddler), it may be noticeable in the face, but not much in my opinion.  And I’m the hardest one on myself!

So, movement.  Yeah, there’s lots of it!  I remember telling my sister-in-law, Mary, around Christmas that I still hadn’t felt hiccups and was curious as to how they felt.  Then about 2 days later they started (which was 2 days before 29 weeks – I think!).  Aaaaaand they pretty much haven’t stopped since then.  He has them alllll the time.  Which is slightly annoying sometimes and cute others, feels like an extra heart is beating in my abdomen.  But I’m told that hiccups are a sign of a healthy baby as they are the start of baby learning how to “practice breathe”, so to relish them.  Dan can feel them, too.  He thinks they’re awesome.  I for the most part do love every movement very much, but some are slightly less ideal than others.  The kicks, punches, and wiggles are totally fine.  It’s the pushing he does like he’s trying to burrow right through my abdomen that are not the cutest.  Just imagine someone using all their force (okay so baby’s force isn’t quite that strong, but it is all HIS force) and pushing on your arm and you’re trying not to let them push you over.  Kind of like that.  Only, he can’t knock me over.  ;)

I’ve also reached the point in the pregnancy where I am tired allll the time.  I get 7-10 hours of sleep on a regular basis, even on weekdays, so I’m definitely not lacking sleep.  I just get so tired halfway or a quarter through my day even.  And I hear it only gets worse going forward.  So, I’m really glad that most of the nursery is done and all the hard work is out of the way.  Well, sort of.  There is that one job I still have to do in March which will top them all.  ;)  I’m tired and I’m finding out quickly I can’t do the things I want to all the time.  Just leaning over the washer to grab clothes and bend over to switch them to the dryer, after about 2 times doing that my abdomen feels like I did about 1000 sit-ups.  It’s not comfortable.  Same for loading and unloading the dishwasher.  Lifting up the toilet lid.  Yeah, pretty much anytime I have to bend my abdomen I’m intensely sore.  Going to need Dan’s help a lot with this in the coming weeks.

Anyways, it’s been a really rough week for our family with losing Dan’s grandma and I think that’s sort of wearing on me.  I was down all this weekend for some reason and irritable and not myself, and that probably has a lot to do with it.  But, we have a lot to look forward to in the next 2 months.  Baby “Shower” Celebration next weekend for all our family and friends (we didn’t go the traditional “girls shower” route – more on that later), child birth and education classes at the beginning through the middle of February, a maternity shoot at some point in February, and then my bestie, Crystal is going to come out during her spring break in March to be with me!  I’m so excited for that.  I hope Finn decides to make an early entrance so she gets to meet him, but if not, I’ll still love seeing her and spending time with her.  I miss her so much and wish she was here for all this pregnancy/baby stuff so bad.  :(

That’s it for now!

On Saturday, we experienced the physical loss of Dan’s sweet and loving grandma, Yvonne.  I say physical because mentally she’d been deteriorating for quite a while due to her dementia taking hold.  She would have been 90 years old on February 3rd, which also happens to be Dan’s 30th birthday.  They are exactly 60 years apart and have shared their birthday dinners together over the last 4 years.  A lot of people don’t realize how close Dan is to both of his grandmothers, they have a very special bond, and Grandma Yvonne even called Dan her “best friend”.  Dan had spent every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday all day long with his grandma over the last 2 years so they have spent more time together than most adult grandchildren that I know spend with their grandparents.  He knew the ins and outs of everything she did and felt.  He knew better than anybody how to help her when she was having a “bad day”.  Jayne would often times call Dan to help her out when she was beyond frazzled, as is common when dealing with a dementia patient.  Dan had a special way with her.  He has a special way with anybody really.  Ask my niece, Annie!  ;)  When we went to Europe for a month my mom came and watched Grandma on those days.  As my mom said when we got back, “In Grandma’s eyes, Dan could do NO wrong.”

Anyways, so it was very sad to lose her but something that we knew was coming and as weird as it feels to say it, it is a huge relief.  Grandma’s quality of life over the last year or so had really deteriorated and she was genuinely unhappy.  We got to spend some time with her in her memory care home on Christmas Eve and she was just so depressed and kept talking about how she wanted to go to sleep and not wake up.  So, really, this is a blessing as she no longer has to struggle with her failing mind and as of the last week, her failing body.  We had just moved her to a new group home last Wednesday (since the memory care home said they could no longer provide her with the help she needed and deserved) where she spent 2 nights and then on Saturday was hospitalized for being really combative and had to be sedated and restrained.  From there, her body just started shutting down, kidneys went into failure and her lungs filled up with fluid.  On Wednesday, Hospice said it would be 3-5 days.  Thursday I was at work and got texts from Dan and Jayne that she had minutes to live so I left work.  We were all (Dan, myself, Jayne, Tom, and his gf Jenny) able to spend several hours with her where we just talked.  She was out of it and sleeping and didn’t really know we were there, but I know that the sounds of our familiar voices must have been comforting.  They said she probably wouldn’t make it through the night.  She did.  Then Friday, we spent another couple hours with her.  This night was especially touching to me and I took a mental picture at one point of Dan holding his grandma’s hand and stroking her arm and hair as he talked to her.  This is when I realized how deep their bond really was and how much she will truly be missed in Dan’s life.  Dan loved her very much.  For all anybody knew, Grandma had no idea we were there, but we also know that when a person is dying, their hearing is the last thing that goes.  I would watch her face and eyes (which were closed) and see no movement.  Then when Dan would get really close to her face and talk in her ear or kiss her cheek, I would see her eyes move behind her eye lids.  So, I know that she heard him.  Whether her brain actually understood or processed what he was saying, who knows, but there was a reaction when she heard his voice – each time.  They again, said that she wouldn’t make it through the night.  Apparently, they greatly underestimated this tough lady!  Her son, Terry from Texas decided to head out real early Friday morning in hopes of seeing her one last time.  She made it through Friday night and he was able to spend Saturday morning with her once he got there.  Jayne and Terry called their other brother, David, so he could talk to her over speaker and tell her he loved her.  It was a good thing because at 12:45pm on Saturday, she took her last breath.  I really think that she was waiting for Terry to get there, and maybe even to hear from David as well, who knows.  But now she can rest and catch up with her hubby, Kenny, her many siblings, and of course her cats Hummel 1 and Hummel 2!  She will be deeply missed, and we will forever honor her every February 3rd on her and Dan’s birthday!

Don’t worry, you’ll get a better picture of the whole room soon enough.  Today (among other things going on in our lives which will be a whole separate post) I am working on hanging shelves and working on the art/collage wall behind the door.  I finished my big “art” project for it last night.  Well, I guess it was more of a craft since that’s what I’m better at.  But it was something I’d been wanting to finish for quite a while and I can’t wait to share it on here.

Dan is going to start working on his portion of the art in the room.  He’s painting a big picture to put above the crib and then we’ll have to both figure out what else we are going to do there.  It’s all coming down to the finishing touches of the room.  I’m so happy that we started so early in the room because I really got to take my time and make it just the way I wanted it.  I got a lot of comments about how “early” we started and “why?”.  Well, because now here I am almost 8 months pregnant and am getting very tired and worn out so the thought of doing all the work that we finished early on does NOT sound appealing at all.  I think if I were just starting, it just wouldn’t get done.  Then baby would be here and things REALLY wouldn’t get done.  So, I’m so glad that I got the excitement bug early on and feel that I’m finishing at a good time in the pregnancy.  Although I use “finish” relatively since, really, will I ever truly be finished with it?  No, probably not.  Things are going to keep coming to me up until he arrives.  Which is a good thing since that will help satisfy my “nesting” urge that I am TOTALLY in right now.  And Dan.  ;)  He’s been organizing our nightmare of a storage/miscellaneous room upstairs a little bit each week as he wants it to be more organized by the time baby arrives, as well as working on his office/guest room.

I have more updates to come including what is going on in our lives (other than baby’s room) and a new pregnancy pic.  Stay tuned for those later!

Wow, it’s almost been a whole month since I updated on the baby’s room.  For anybody reading this that wasn’t reading it for baby updates – well I did pretty good!  But the countdown is back on and we have to get things done!  That includes sharing it on here.

I just have to say before I say anything else, my mom is awesome, and amazing, and I don’t think there’s a thing she can’t do.  She’s done SO unbelievably much for Dan and I since the very beginning of the pregnancy.  She’s been such an integral part of the entire experience and an invaluable resource when it has come to designing the baby’s room and making it come to life.  She has such a good eye and always has great ideas for making anything and everything we do even better.  She is constantly buying things for Finn, helping me with projects, and been really good at being overall excited for and with us as we are near embarking on this new journey.  Thanks, Mom, you are seriously appreciated and the absolute best.

What have we been doing?  Painted over the old blue with this new blue.  May be hard to tell from pictures, and it’s still not *perfect*, but it’s good enough and is staying.  We got the bedding back, as you know, but it needed a little bit more work.  I had a girl make the crib bumper, crib skirt, changing pad, and a sheet (so that we could see how it’s done and make a few more ourselves).  It turned out lovely, as you know again, but after the fact we thought of a few things we could add to the set.  We made 2 more sheets out of some beautiful fabric I purchased.  You will see one sheet on the crib the next time I post a picture of it.  I *attempted* to learn to sew, but pretty much learned that I can’t sew a straight line.  Mom to the rescue!  I’m an excellent elastic puller, though!

The changing pad was originally just the blue dot and yellow minky, but my mom’s keen eye thought we needed some coral so we went to our local ribbon shop and bought this, which she sewed right on.  Turned out awesome, I love it!  Oh and what’s that to the right of the changing pad you ask (Ok, humor me here, I’m really excited.)?

Why, that’s our beautiful lamp which we made by hand!  Mom found a lamp shade at Goodwill.  She whipped up the fabric cover to go over it (lining it with a coral colored fabric on the inside so it really shows through when the lamp is on – see, she’s all about the details!) with her sewing machine (again), and Dan and I helped with feeding the elastic through the top and bottom so we can say we contributed!  She also sewed the brown pom pom trim to the ribbon so that I could then take it home and glue it on the shade.  Mom then found a glass lamp base, again at Goodwill, and I painstakingly filled it with these tiny shells one by one (the hole was very small), glued the ribbon around the base of the lamp (harder than it seems), and wah lah!  We have light!  I love it, love it, love it.

See, Dan snapped a picture of me hard at work.  Stuffed this bad boy with shells til 1am on Sunday night.  Let’s see, what else have we been up to.  Oh yes, the curtain valance as the title of this blog suggests.  Well, you can’t see it yet.  I thought it was done, but turns out it’s not.  Mom had another brilliant idea to add to it and so she came by my house today and confiscated the what I thought was finished curtains and took them back to her house.  I am confident they are going to look “cute as a button” (hint hint?!) and you will love them, too.  Just take my word, we do have curtains, you just can’t see them yet.  Sorry.

What you can see is this – another piece of the nursery that mom found for us at Goodwill.  Our glider.  In perfect shape other than needing a few screws tightened.  It was originally going to go in the nursery for late night feedings, but we decided since Finn will be sleeping in our room for the first few weeks or so (more to come on that later!), and our room is located downstairs, that putting the glider upstairs in the nursery was a little impractical.  It’s not like I am going to wake up in the middle of the night to feed and run upstairs (with baby in arms) to rock in the glider.  Since our living room is right outside the master bedroom, we have it in there for now for those late night feedings and rockings by the tv.  Once Finn is sleeping in his room, we’ll move it up there since at that point I *will* be going up and down the stairs to take care of business and having the glider then will make much more sense.

And here is the start of the decorations.  I know there wasn’t much underwater/whale stuff before… but it’s starting to trickle in.  This neat little coral tree is actually something my mom bought for our wedding to use as a center piece which we were unable to use since we ended up having the wedding in Cancun!  So, I got to re-purpose it in Finn’s nursery.  Dan hung this shelf, mom stuck a few starfish in the tree and we have a few little knick knacks next to it (that are ever changing).

There is plenty more to come.  Still working on the art/collage wall (behind the door which has yet to be shown on this blog), organizing the closet, hanging other shelves, mirrors, and decorations around above the dresser and crib, and the mobile.  But it’s shaping up quite nicely!  Oh and of course filling up the nursery with all the baby gear!

• Paint
• Furniture
• Bedding
• Mattress
• Repaint the blue on the walls
• Closet organizers
• Drawer liners
• Art wall
• Lamp & shade
• Curtains
• Shelving unit?
• Baby book - Dan got me one for Christmas!
• Pocket shelves
• Mobile
• Find a glider!
• Sheets
• Baby quilt w/ mom
• Lighting
• Fan

Up next??? BABY SHOWER.  Can’t believe it – never thought I’d be having one, but I am.  Next weekend.  Well, BABY BBQ is more like it.  Not having a typical shower.  But more on that in another post, this one is all about the nursery, baby!

The end of the year has come.  Not that that means all that much, as the sun will still rise tomorrow just like any other day and it won’t be any different.  Only difference will be what number we jot down for the date.  I will say that 2011 was a great year for us.  Sort of uneventful now that I sit down to write about all the things that happened this year.  I guess there were only a few that stick out:

Dan’s health improved greatly.  If you remember, last year was a rough one with him having surgery to replace his ICD with a dual chamber one, then becoming anemic for a while, and going back into heart failure as his EF dropped to about 15%.  He started on the mend in March of this year and when we returned from our trip and he was seen in July, doc said he wasn’t in CHF anymore.  His EF still has a ways to go (we’ll find out what it is in March of this year) but he’s feeling really good!  So good that he was able to hike the Italian Riviera in June:

We went on the trip of a lifetime.  For realz.  Not sure we’ll ever get to take a trip like that again, but I sure hope so.  And hopefully it will be with our soon to be little family member.  We saw 7 countries on our trip to Europe, although I’m sorta exaggerating about the 7th as it was a quick stop at the train station in Belgium.  ;)  But 6 is still amazing.  England, Holland, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy.  Wow.  It was a whirlwind trip but we had a blast and wouldn’t have done it any other way.  We still have so many places we want to go back and see (Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Eastern Europe) but this was a good first taste of what’s out there.  1 month in Europe, not everybody gets to experience that!  It was such a wonderful trip with some of our best friends where we made so many memories and experiences.  And one of the best things that came out of it was our decision to finally become a family of 3.

We returned from Europe at the beginning of June and it didn’t take long for us to decide we wanted to add to our family.  A month later we found out we were expecting.  And it’s been another whirlwind trip since that moment!  Things haven’t slowed down one bit but I guess that’s just the way it goes from here on out.  We are so happy to start this next big adventure.  And so thankful we have so many great people in our lives to share it with.  It’s been really surreal for me to think about each holiday that’s passed (not to mention every single day) being our last “alone”.  Next Christmas and New Year’s will be spent with what we happen to think is going to be an amazing little person.  :)  Can’t wait to continue to blog about it and keep everyone posted as he grows and our family becomes something totally fun and new.

For our last day of 2011, we went on a hike to a beautiful trail about 15 minutes from our house (I looooove where we live) in the Superstition Mountains with my dad, Eric, Annie, and the 2 dogs, Sadie and Penny.  Sadie and Penny actually got along just fine, surprisingly enough.  Nothing like the last time they saw eachother.  Pheww.  They were both so excited just about all the smells and tired from the strenuous hike.  This wasn’t a real easy hike, definitely not a “walk in the park”, but believe it or not, we finally all had to call it a day when Sadie (who is beyond fat and out of shape, the poor thing) just didn’t want to move any more.  She was so pooped, I imagine she is at home just passed the hell out right now!  It was a beautiful day, about 70-75 degrees, we were mostly shaded, and we had a lot of really nice conversation.  It was great.  We’re going to go again next weekend.  And believe it or not, I was feeling good!  Didn’t get tired or too sore while we were out there, although now it’s 10pm and I can barely hold my eyes open.  I know that means it was definitely tiring and hard on my body because admittedly, I haven’t even been awake 12 hours today!  I got up after 11am!  Hehehe.  Being off the past few days means we’ve been staying up late and sleeping in.  Only 2 days left to get back on schedule.

Just as a side note, me and Dan were talking today as we drove to the trail about how no matter how long we have both lived here in AZ, it never ever gets old.  The desert is so beautiful and we love having these mountains right in our backyard!

I know a lot of people aren’t a fan of the 3D images of the baby… but that’s pretty much all we get!  They don’t really take any good B&W profile shots of baby’s cute shape.  All our B&W shots are of his heart and my placenta/cervix!  Haha.  Regardless of anyone’s preference, this shot looks so cute.  At our last ultrasound (a week ago) we took my mom and I hope she thought it was a cool experience.  We get another one next week.  Being a high risk pregnancy does have its advantages I guess – lots of ultrasounds.  Which I’m sure are going to cost me lots of moolah!

One of the greatest singers of all time, a personal favorite, who makes me cry every time I hear her sing… Eva Cassidy, doing the best version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow I have ever heard, and probably will ever hear.  Her voice is so beautiful, inspiring, emotional, powerful, sorrowful, technical, and the list goes on.  She died way too soon but left behind the best gift she could – her songs.  I like what someone else said about her, so I’ll steal it: “The singer hasn’t been born yet who can surpass Eva.

Rest in peace, beautiful Songbird!

I know it’s already 2 days late, but before this year gets away from us I wanted to make sure we wished the interwebz a very Merry Christmas.  We spent Christmas Eve, as we always do, at Dan’s mom’s house.  We all (Dan, myself, Jayne, Tom, & Grandma Jo) went and visited Grandma Yvonne in her memory care home (Thanksgiving didn’t work out so well with bringing her home) and watched her open presents.  It was sad to have to leave her there especially as she kept asking when she was going to get home, but it really was for the best.  Taking her out of her environment (with the worst dementia and alzheimer’s that you can get) was just too hard on her, as well as us.  We had a nice visit and then spent the rest of the day at home where Tom’s girlfriend, Jenny and her son, Victor showed up.  Dan put the lasagna together using the homemade sauce Jayne had been cooking in the crock pot all day.  It turned out delicious AS USUAL.  Then we opened presents.

On Christmas Day we had turkey dinner at my parents.  The suspects were Dan, myself, mom, dad, Jayne, Tom, Grandma Jo, Jack, Eric, Mary, Annie, Katie, and Grandpa Lassen.  Oh and my other little brother, Jack’s best friend since they were 4, Scottie made an appearance.  Full house but it was truly wonderful.  Dan made the turkey.  I made the green beans and mashed potatoes.  Jayne made the gravy and the Cool-Whip salad.  Mom and Dad worked their dang asses off on making the house beautiful and decorating it as such!  Of course mom and dad also helped with advising me on the green beans and tators, and dad helped Dan get the turkey out of the oven and transferred to a pan for carving.  Good times.  After dinner we all opened presents (first time we ever did it at night on Christmas Day, but everybody didn’t get there until after 4pm).  Last Christmas was a really hard one for my parents with my dad on the verge of losing his job, so it was super tight.  They made up for it this year and spoiled the hell out of their 2 granddaughters!  And they enjoyed it so much.  I could just see the joy on their faces as they watched Annie open all her gifts.  Of course they spoiled all their kids as well.  Love my parents!

I’ll post the highlights of the weekend (again as a gallery because I’m lazy, but make sure to check them all out!):

Best quote from my Christmas was my 95 y/o Grandpa telling us that his next car is either going to be a Mustang or a Camaro. A.) Because he’s talking about his “next car” which means he plans on being around for a while, and B.) Because that’s what every 95 y/o should drive.