Christmas in Atlanta

I flew down to Atlanta on the 26th and celebrated Christmas with my side of our family that evening.  Jeff made it down on the 29th and we flew back on the 31st.  On the 29th we did Christmas gifts with Jeff's parents.  We took our moms out for lunch and a movie on the 30th.  Mmmm, Mexican!  That evening we visited with my brother and sister-in-law at my parents while their schedules allowed.  We celebrated New Year's Eve with the Schulze family at a great lunch hosted by Dave and Karen (Jeff's brother and his wife).  There was Chick-fil-a nuggets and Karen's dad's famous white chili involved! Yum!  Then we flew home that evening for a quiet toast to the new year at home.  With sparkling grape juice of course.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas with my family.

Lots of present waiting for me to wrap

Stockings at the Simpson house

Tree after our presents were added

A little something for Grandma-to-be

Someone's excited....

For his Buck Hunter game!

I didn't have any pictures of my mom with pregnant me so we had to fix that!

The annual Christmas picture of the two of us

And a little something for baby-to-be

Christmas in Chicago

As Jeff noted in his post, it was the last Christmas with just the two of us.  We’ve been very fortunate with Jeff’s schedule to have made it to Atlanta for Christmas in past years.  This year didn’t allow for that so we celebrated in Chicago.  Jeff had to work until midnight on Christmas Eve, so I was on my own.  It was harder than I expected it to be as Christmas Eve isn’t typically a big day for me.  But I was feeling lonely.  So I went to church to sing some good Christmas-y songs (and be reminded of the reason for the holiday, of course).  As a non-Catholic I felt weird walking in to the Catholic church all by myself, even though it’s the same church we go to every weekend.  The walls didn’t crumble around me and no lightning bolts came from the sky, so I think it was ok.  And the song selection didn’t disappoint. 

Later in the evening I used Skype to video chat with my family and participate in the Simpson Christmas Eve ritual.  This consists of hanging stockings, toasting the season, and opening our Christmas Eve gift (pajamas).  The jokes, jabs and insults traded between my family members assured me that even though we’re all growing older and venturing out on our own, some things never change.

Christmas morning came and I once again Skyped with my family.  I got to see them open some presents and hear them talk about ones I couldn’t see from my particular viewpoint. I got passed around to different laps as people took turns moving the laptop to change what I could see.  Although not nearly the same as being there, it was nice to have a way to feel a part of things.  I had to talk loudly enough for them to hear me and my voice carried into the bedroom and woke Jeff up.  He stumbled out and promptly crawled under the blanket on the couch.  He wasn’t real interested in any on-camera appearances.  He turned on the 24-hour marathon of A Christmas Story and texted key lines back and forth with his sister.

Once we finished up with all the Skyping, we had our own Christmas.  We each had stockings full of candy and small gifts.  Apparently Santa decided to take note of this pregnancy thing and gift me with some chocolate covered potato chips.  I’ve only had one so far, but they are definitely full of greasy goodness.

Jeff got me an ipod touch, which I am now addicted to.  Thank goodness I can’t access the wireless internet at work with it and thus can convince myself to leave it at home.  I also got a pregnancy pillow, some books, and a very cool customized vinyl skin for my Kindle.  Jeff used some wedding photos of us to create the front cover and a vibrant flower picture from our Canada trip to make the back.  It’s pretty cool.  I was telling my mom about it and she said “See, now that’s romantic.”  And while it does sound a little silly, I know what she means and I agree.  I appreciate the time and effort put into thinking up the idea, picking out pictures that would be meaningful, and cropping and adjusting to make them fit.  That is, lots of time spent thinking about what I would like.  Can’t go wrong with that.

Back

Front

Jeff received a miscellaneous assortment of items including some books from his wish list, some stubby, flexible head ratchets, and a soda rack for his cans of Jeff water (flavored seltzer water).  His big gift was a gift certificate to an online lens rental company so that he can try out all these fancy lenses on his wish list.  I don’t know how he feels about his gifts, but I don’t think it was one of my better gift-giving occasions.

In the afternoon we went over to Jeff’s grandparents house for the Schulze Christmas gathering.  I contributed stuffed mushrooms to the party, which everyone raved about.  They’re a good group to cook for; whatever I bring gets such enthusiastic response.  We had a Italian/Chicago feast of lasagna, sausage, and Italian beef and enjoyed spending time with all the family.

The next day I was off to Atlanta for Christmas, round 2.

Christmas Time is Here!

So, it was baby's first pre-birth Christmas.  I'm thinking it will probably be her last as well.  That meant it was our last Christmas spent quietly at home.  The baby did get some presents.  We got the ottoman for our rocking chair. 

Ottoman in the box.  The UPS man left it at our back door for some reason.  So, when I got home at 1am, I brushed the snow off and brought it inside.

I had to test it for safety.  Some assembly was required... the cushion sticks to the base with velcro (that comes already attached).  That's right, I put it together myself!

I did get some new formal wear for Christmas.  For those who can't read, it says "Pickles are cucumbers soaked in evil".  Brandi wouldn't let me wear it to my Grandmother's for Christmas.  For those in Atlanta, don't you worry, it will make it's debut this week when I'm home.

Brandi and I decided that we should go ahead and buy are rocking chair.  We had the ottoman already, and there was something about us not getting rewards points if we didn't buy the chair before Christmas.  We made a special trip to a store 10 miles away since they were the only ones that said it was in stock on the website.  Well, apparently, "in stock" means "we have actually seen that particular chair before, and we can have it shipped to our store for you to drive all of the way back out here to pick it up yourself sometime in the next Jovian year (um, that's 4332.7 days)".  I think we'll get the chair sometime in mid to late January.  To make it better, we probably won't get the points because we don't "own" the furniture until we picked it up.  For $350, I damn well better own it!  Until then, the ottoman makes a nice addition to our arm chair (no more pulling back on that little lever to raise my feet; the ottoman comes pre-raised).  Luckily, Christmas fell just two days after Brandi's laptop gave up the ghost.  I thought this was excellent because we could go computer shopping.  We did look, but we some how only ended up buying a piece of paper that said we might own a rocking chair in the future.  I'm not sure how that happened.  Oh well!

Christmas is coming!

We got our Christmas tree at the beginning of December.  A beautiful Frasier fir, direct from Michigan to a little lot in Oak Park.  It was an adventure getting it up and lit.  Jeff wanted to make some cuts on the bottom.  Both of the batteries for his saw died after a minute of use.  And we couldn't find the hand saws.  But we made do.  And then Jeff started putting up the lights. 

  We had more white lights than colored lights so he went with white.  But this is the biggest tree we've had.  The one we had two years ago was a foot shorter and last year we had a small artificial tree since we were out of town for a while.  So we didn't have enough lights.  Nothing a quick run to Kmart couldn't solve, right?  Wrong!  Even though he bought the same brand, apparently the white LED lights are no longer blue-ish like the ones we bought a few years ago.  They've made the change to the warmer yellow color.  Which is probably smart in the long run.  But they don't match our old ones!  But our multi-white tree has grown on me and now I love it. 

On another Christmas related note, I'm living with a Christmas over-achiever!  As of last weekend, Jeff has purchased all the presents he is getting me, wrapped them, put them under the tree, purchased stocking stuffers, and stuffed my stocking.  And we've purchased all his family's gifts.  They are either sitting at our house waiting to travel to Atlanta or at my parents' house waiting for me to come wrap them.  So he is done with everything Christmas related.

I, on the other hand, haven't even finished buying his gifts.  Nor am even 100% decided on what to get him.

Atlanta shower!

The tail end of my Thanksgiving trip featured my Atlanta baby shower, thrown by the moms and sisters.  Lots of great brunch food, good friends, and very generous gifts.  I drafted my niece Kiersten into helping with the present opening.  That way I could pretend some of the focus was taken off of me!  Here are some pictures from the day.  There is an unfortunate lack of pictures of the grandmas, but know that they were there helping make it a great day!

Mmm, food!

Adorable cake made by my mom

Focus on the cute blond while I open these pack n play sheets!

Gifts from my Dad -
"I love Grandpa" onesie and anti Monkey Butt diaper cream.
Very appropriate.  :)

Diaper bag and pile of goodies from my mom

Cozy snowsuit from Grandma Schulze.
This was a big "awww!" getter.

Our car seat, hooray!
Weirdly, this was probably the item I was most excited to receive.
It makes this whole thing seem more real to me.

Baby book! 

My sister Jamie gets in some Auntie pride with this onesie

Me and my sister Jamie.  Don't we look so much alike?

Guests

More guests :)

Some of the loot waiting to be packed up for shipping

Thank you to everyone who attended and gave so generously.  Jeff and I are very appreciative of the gifts and love showered on us.  Formal thank you notes will be on their way.  They are on my to do list during my Christmas break.

Special thanks to our moms and sisters for all the work they put in!! 

Atlanta Trip - part 1

I traveled to Atlanta for Thanksgiving and a baby shower our families put together. I left Tuesday Nov. 23rd and came back Sunday Nov. 28th.  Here's part 1 of the trip details.

Tuesday-
Tuesday afternoon I rushed home for work to grab my luggage and wait for the cab.  It was a few minutes late, making me anxious about my already tight timeline.  But everything went fine and security at O’Hare wasn’t bad.  The plane trip was good except the part where they announced we were delayed because we didn’t have a pilot.  Turns out what they meant was that the pilot’s connecting flight was delayed but he was on his way through the airport to our plane.  Oh, and the loud little girl behind me.  I needed my headphones to drown out her inquisitive little voice.

Wednesday-

It was a lazy morning for me while my mom whipped up a few dishes to take with us up to the cabin, where we would be having Thanksgiving.  So here’s the deal with the cabin.  My dad’s cousin Danie (who lives in Florida) bought a place in the north Georgia mountains a few years ago.  The term “cabin” doesn’t really convey the beautiful 4 bedroom, 3 bath dwelling with gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains.  It has two back decks, with a hot tub on the bottom deck and an outdoor fireplace on the top.  Needless to say, my family likes to go up whenever they can.  The times I’ve been key activities include eating and drinking good stuff, riding 4 wheelers, hot tubbing, playing cards or Scrabble, and making S’mores by the fire. 

So anyway, my mom and I arrived early afternoon.  My dad, my grandfather, Danie, her aunt, and her son Cody were already there.  We arrived just in time to watch some chainsaw repair going on.  They needed this chainsaw to finish cutting down a tree and get the other chainsaw unstuck from said tree.  Of course, the whole process was lubricated with a little beer.  Ah, power tools and alcohol!  But I guess that’s less scary than hearing Jeff talk about using a chainsaw while up on a ladder.

We puttered around for the afternoon, eventually settling in for some card games.  For me going to the cabin equals making s’mores in the fire, once it’s gotten dark and a little chilly.  So I eventually checked the s’more supply to see if we had everything, because that can be an issue.  Sure enough, we were out of graham crackers.  We texted my sister to ask her to pick some up on her way up that evening, being sure to add that her pregnant sister wanted them to increase her willingness to pick up supplies (apparently she gets frequent requests).

But unbeknownst to me, apparently the cabin equals s’mores equation only still exists in my head.  Because I got grief for it.  Let it be known that I only ate a grand total of 4 s’mores.  Two on the first night and two on the second.  That is not an excessive amount of s’mores!  Even for a regular person, let alone a pregnant one!

Thursday – Thanksgiving day! 
All my favorites were there – fried turkey, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, cranberry, plus much more.  Mmm, mmm!  I started slow since I didn’t know how much I could fit in my stomach.  I made sure not to overload my plate and did have room to go backs for seconds of a few things.  I don’t think I consumed any more than a typical Thanksgiving meal.  Jeff, stuck back all by his lonesome in Chicago, was well fed by the Schulze extended family.

The rest of the day there was some 4 wheeling, card playing, and hot tubbing.  None of which I participated in.  The belly was feeling pretty tight, so I was not up for sitting upright in a chair long enough for multiple rounds of cards.  I did a lot of reading so I could stretch out on the couch.  We also went for a walk to burn off a little food.  Oh, and my brother busted his head while out on the 4 wheeler.  Yep, the guy leaving for his honeymoon in Costa Rica in 2 days got a head injury! He was still feeling off a while later so he visited the ER to receive one staple in his head and some meds that made him quite loopy.  My mom had a very entertaining phone conversation with him that evening.

Friday –  

On Friday, my mom, sister, and I headed back home.  But we stopped to do a little Black Friday shopping on the way.  We hit a mall in the early afternoon and were surprised at how quiet it was.  We weren’t in there long before we got distracted by the Costco just outside.  A few free samples and a few Costco purchases later, we decided to move on.  My sister had to split off to get ready for a date.  So my mom and I went and did some damage at JCPenney (mostly buying for ourselves!) and a few other stores.   Then we had a quiet evening with a little veggie pizza because I had left my to go container of turkey and potatoes at the cabin.

Ok, that's the end of part 1.  Shower details to come in another post.

Third Trimester!

I'm 28 weeks today.  And apparently there are many ways to do pregnancy math, but my weekly emails from babycenter.com declare this the start of the third trimester!  I would kind of like to hold on to the 2nd trimester a little longer.  In my mind third trimester = big and uncomfortable and I'm not looking forward to that part.  But I am looking forward to meeting a cute baby at the end of it all!  She's been quite active the past 2 days.  I thought maybe she trying to bust through my abdomen with all the pressure I felt by my belly button last night. 

I will make a post about Thanksgiving and my fabulous shower down in Atlanta once I have a little more time and energy, whenever that may be.  I can say that I probably did not "live up to the hype" in eating for two on Thanksgiving.  I had to start slow because I never know how much food I can stuff in my stomach these days.  But I did get a lot of grief about wanting a few S'mores while we were up at a relative's cabin in the north Georgia mountains.

Turkey Day!

It's Thanksgiving Day, and Brandi is eating for two. Can she live up to the hype? Full report to follow. I'll have to rely on my informants in Atlanta, because I'm not there. Brandi is home gearing up for the biggest gift giving day of the year... her Atlanta baby shower. I'm sure we'll hear all about it when she returns.

Catching up

Got a little behind in posting belly pictures. Here's 24 and 26 weeks. I hit 27 weeks this week, just in time for Turkey day!

First Shower!

So we've had occasional baby gifts arriving at our door for a while now.  But the first baby shower took place last weekend,on the day after my brother's wedding.  And it was a bit of a surprise!

My mom called me on Saturday to let me know that my Maine relatives had a few gifts for me and wanted to do a little impromptu shower Sunday morning.  I arrive at my parents' house to see this.

A table full of presents, cupcakes, and a kitchen full of breakfast foods!  Hash brown casserole, biscuits and gravy, and bacon.  Mmmm!  My mom is getting everything ready and says "Oh, I didn't make eggs or anything.  Brandi, do you want to me cook up some eggs?"  My mother, who had hosted a rehearsal dinner, married off her only son, was hosting a house full of people, and just cooked a big breakfast the morning after said wedding, wants to know if I want her to do more work to make some eggs??  That was a definite no.

The baby received a lot of great presents.
Clothes (a small sampling):

Bibs:

Mommy and Daddy represented equally!

And books!

And last, but CERTAINLY not least....handmade gifts from my talented mom and aunts:

Adorable hats from Dori

Sweater from Val with little ducky buttons!

Booties and a hat to go with the sweater

My mom checks out the little booties

Gorgeous blanket made by my mom

Me imagining using the blanket to sleep on the plane

There's a family history for the sweater set that my Aunt Val shared.  The knitting pattern was my grandmother's.  It's one she used to make the same set of items for many babies while she was still able, including me and my older cousins.  My aunt took the pattern and used it to make a set for our little girl. It's such a great continuity in the family and a way for grandmother to be a part of it even though she's no longer with us.  Guess this means I should learn some sort knitting or crocheting skill so I can fit in!

And mommy-to-be wasn't forgotten in the gift department either.  I got a few maternity clothes to add to my collection.  A big thanks to everyone involved from gift giving, to planning, to executing!

Looking ahead, the main event shower-wise takes place next weekend with the family shower in Atlanta.  I'm sure that means more pictures of cute baby stuff to come!

My Brother Gets Married!

Jeff and I were in Atlanta for the big wedding festivities for John and Jess on November 13th.  It was a busy but fun weekend.  I flew in on Thursday.  This allowed for an important mani/pedi outing with some family on Friday!  My parents' house was full of activity all weekend with relatives coming and going.

Jeff flew in just in time to arrive at the rehearsal dinner Friday evening.  My sister made some gorgeous fall centerpieces to decorate the tables at the dinner site.  My parents provided the booze and the site provided a "bartender."  A bartender who said they didn't do anything as "fancy" as a White Russian and found my request for a half sprite and half orange juice "interesting" and "a new one."  My dad quickly schooled the guy in White Russian making, as having that drink available for Simpson events is as important as having brandy old fashioneds available at Baker events (Jeff's mom's side of the family).  Everyone was welcomed back to my parents' house after dinner for more socializing.  Jeff and I were there for about 5 seconds before I decided it was too much noise and people for me to handle.  So I grabbed my stuff and we escaped to the quiet of his parents' house.

We had a laid back morning at the Schulze's on Saturday, with the requisite trip to Chick-fil-a for lunch.  We headed to the reception site late afternoon to be present for pictures.  The reception site just happened to be the same one Jeff's sister had her reception 10 years ago!  The evening ceremony was outdoors.  Jeff and I were front and center, with my assigned seat being right on the aisle in the front row.  So we had a good view as my grandfather officiated the ceremony to make my brother a married man.

It was a beautiful ceremony!  But then it was time to party down! The DJ was a little on the naughty side, but definitely entertaining.  It seemed a good time was had by all.  And I can now say my brother is married to Jessica Simpson!!


Here are a few more pictures.

Jeff Posts... again!

Well, it's now been over 2 weeks since Brandi last posted on here.  So, you're stuck with more of Jeff's perspective on pregnancy.

What I've noticed so far:
The belly is definitely getting bigger
Brandi pees a lot

Hrm, that's about all I've noticed.  I should either be more observant or just thank God that I'm not the one who is pregnant.

In actual baby news, Brandi had her glucose test today.  She had to drink this little orange drink.  It looked just like the cheap sugary drinks you find in the unmarked bottles at the grocery store. 

We'll find out later if she has gestational diabetes.  I think I got diabetes just watching her drink that stuff!

I'll see if I can get Brandi to post something before her big trip to Atlanta (again) this week.