Christmas Memories

I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone!  It always sneaks up on us and is over before we know it.  This was a really fun year though and we had some great memories that I don't want to forget:

*Annual Black Friday adventure to downtown to Seattle with my parents to begin Christmas shopping and visiting the Sheraton gingerbread houses
*Annual trip to Molbaks to buy our poinsettias and sample Kringle Ring danish
*Buying our Christmas tree from the Keith and Scott Tree Farm in North Bend, decorating the tree and the house
*Watching James perform playing the trumpet in the Snoqualmie Wind Ensemble concert at the Snoqualmie tree lighting
*Seattle University choir Christmas concert with my family and then celebrating my dad's birthday at one of our favorite restaurants, La Rustica in West Seattle
*Ultrasound to find out the gender of our baby and the Gender Reveal party with our families--what a wonderful Christmas present!
*Annual Warner Christmas dinner at Seastar in Bellevue
*Hosting a Christmas party with friends at our house--played Pictionary with Christmas carol titles, White Elephant exchange where strangely all the presents were items for baby :), and laughing til our cheeks hurt!
*Christmas Eve Eve service at Eastlake Sammamish
*Spending Christmas Eve with the Warners--yummy beef tenderloin dinner, Christmas Eve service at Sammamish Presbyterian, and opening presents
*Christmas morning just the two of us--next year it will be the 3 of us!
*Spending Christmas day with the Spauldings opening presents and eating a yummy turkey dinner
*Enjoying our week off together--both our employers close the week between Christmas and New Years--love vacation!!

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!!

Annual photo at Molbaks

James' performance.  He did great!

The Warners

Christmas Eve

After opening our Christmas poppers

Barb and Jay Spaulding--what a cute couple!

Christmas at the Spauldings

Buche de Noel (Yule Log) cake that Jay made! Isn't it so pretty?

The whole Spaulding clan

Trip to Oregon

With the holidays we've been really busy and I haven't had much time to blog.  But we did some fun things in December that I want to make sure to document. 

Earlier in December I got to travel down to Portland, OR to attend a conference for work.  James took the train down to come meet me.  We got to stay at The Nines hotel in downtown Portland which was so nice!  Great little boutique hotel.  After the conference ended we took an afternoon to wander around the Pearl District in Portland and took advantage of some "no sales tax" purchasing. 

After Portland, we drove about 2 hours south to Eugene, OR to visit our wonderful friends, Annie, Ryan and their baby daughter Lucy.  Yes, we must admit James had a very difficult time being in "Oregon Duck" country.  He really had to bare down to survive being in enemy territory.  Luckily Annie and Ryan were wonderful hosts so we quickly focused on just having fun with them. 

Their daughter Lucy was born last April and we hadn't had a chance to meet her yet.  What a cutie!  Such a bundle of joy and she's a really good baby.  We had so much fun just hanging out at home and playing with Lucy.  It was great training and preparation for us of what's to come next year.  Annie gave me some good tips and advice about baby products and mothering techniques too.  From eating Annie's wonderful cooking, to a great walk around the neighborhood, to watching movies and relaxing, it was a really nice weekend. 

Annie and I became close friends while living in Missouri and luckily she met her husband Ryan who is an Oregon native so they ended up moving to the Pacific Northwest.  We're blessed to be able to see them at least 1 time a year.  We love you Annie and Ryan--thanks for a great weekend!!

Morning play time with Lucy

What a happy girl!

Sorry--no pics of Annie and Ryan.  We apparently were too smitten with Lucy!

Blue Frosting

This past Friday we had our 18 week ultrasound (can't believe we're already to 18 weeks)!  This was the big one...time to find out the gender of our baby!  We didn't just want to find out from the ultrasound technician though.  We thought it would be fun to do something unique and really involve our families.  James' mom gave us the idea to do a Gender Reveal Party.  Here's how it works:

We told the ultrasound technician, Theresa (who is so wonderful--very calming and friendly) about our little plan.  So on Friday we got to see our baby on the screen and then she would just have us turn away when she was looking in particular "areas."  It was incredible to see how much the baby has grown in just the last 5 weeks.  And baby was very active.  We might have a wild one on our hands!!  Theresa then wrote down the gender and sealed it in an envelope along with photos of the private parts.  She also wrote down the gender on another piece of paper and sealed it in an envelope labeled "Bakery."

Off James and I went to Hoffman's Bakery in Kirkland.  We ordered a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and told the bakery saleswoman to color the frosting between the cake layers either pink or blue depending on what was inside the envelope.  She couldn't believe that she would know before we would!

On Sunday we all gathered together at my parents' house for the Gender Reveal Party.  You can see a picture of the invitation below.  We had everyone wear their "team" colors depending on what they thought the baby would be.  The whole time being pregnant I've had an instinct that it's a boy so James and I both wore blue.  So did my dad, James' sister, brother-in-law, and Ryan's girlfriend Tracey.  The pink team was my mom, brother, and James' parents.  After everyone arrived we were quick to cut the cake as we couldn't stand the anticipation any longer!  And the outcome was....(drumroll please)....the frosting was BLUE!!  We are going to have a son!  My instinct was correct all along.  We are thrilled and it was so special to share the moment with our families.  Then we had dinner together and basked in the excitement.  It's so nice to be able to say "he" and "our son!"

We highly recommend the Gender Reveal Party idea--very fun!!

The Invitation	The result is hidden inside!
Blue Team	Pink Team (Johnathin couldn't make up his mind)
So excited!!	It's blue frosting--it's a boy!!
Team Blue wins	Can't wait to meet our little guy in May