I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday. I know we did. I got off work on Christmas Eve at about 3:45 and came home to rest up. Around 4:30 or so we loaded up the car and headed over to my parent’s house. We had chili for dinner and then I put together a Gingerbread House and then we opened gifts with my parents and my little sister. Gene and I exchanged our gifts (we set a $50 limit since I just got a Macbook Pro, we ordered a camcorder and also plan to spend more $$ on this little one) on Christmas Eve night because I was too excited and didn’t want to wait until Christmas morning. Sometimes I can be such a kid.

Christmas morning we got up and let the doggies open their presents and play with them and then we headed over to my parent’s house for the day. We had a big breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon, homemade bread and eggs. This was a late lunch around 11 so we ended up having Christmas dinner around 6ish. For Christmas dinner we had Ham (my Dad’s work gave them a choice of ham, turkey, or brisket), Cornflake Potato Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, layered salad and rolls. For dessert my mom made a Pumpkin Toffee Cheesecake. The cheesecake was TO DIE FOR. Oh and her Sweet Potato Casserole is amazing! It isn’t the kind that has marshmallows on it.. The topping is a mixture of brown sugar and finely chopped pecans. Oh boy that stuff is good.

Anyway so we had a great Holiday. Last night Gene and I drove around and looked at Christmas lights. It’s a tradition we usually do a week or so before Christmas but we just never had time to do it before now. Unfortunately it seems as if a lot of people took down or turned off their lights the day after Christmas. I thought people used to leave them up until New Years? I don’t know. The people across the street from us took theirs down yesterday, I couldn’t believe it.

I would like to get all of my decorations down soon but I don’t know how that is going to pan out. I may have Gene bring in the containers this week and that way I can slowly take the tree apart and dismantle the fireplace mantle (hah). I love right after Christmas when my house gets back to “normal.” There is just something amazing about that feeling! I’ve been getting all of these ideas for ways to declutter and minimize the amount of crap I have laying around. I think I’m going to try to sell some of the stuff I have online, I just haven’t decided where. Probably Ebay. I’m guessing these are the starting stages of nesting. Is it too early to be nesting at almost 21 weeks? I’ve decided that we will probably paint the baby’s room a VERY pale pink. I’m talking, VERY pale here. I don’t want anything overbearing or crazy. I was also thinking I could do a very pale yellow and maybe do pink stencils on the walls of something or other. I need to research nursery ideas and stenciling and painting and stuff.

Anyway, here is the rundown of gifts we received so I’ll have it down for the future. Because my memory? Almost non existent these days.

Me:
- Brown Crocs with brown wool lining (Link) – From Mom & Dad
- Giraffe print purse with red leather strap. – From Mom & Dad
- Electric Skillet (Link) – From Mom & Dad
- Snowman trash can with Japanese Cherry Blossom body wash, body spray, hand creme, a stuffed black sheep – From Layla
- Wii Fit (this was to Gene and I both) – from Mom & Dad
- Animal Crossing for Nintendo DS – From Mom & Dad
- Touchmaster for Nintendo DS – From Gene
- The Simpsons Movie on DVD – From Gene
- Nintendo DS Accessories (a stand, a game case) – From Gene
- LOTS of candy, including: A candy cane tube of sweet tarts, a candy cane tube of runts, a candy cane tube of life saver gummies, a candy cane tube of hershey kisses, a package of snickers peanut butter santas, a package of assorted Fererro Rocher chocolates, a box of laffy taffy… Oh geez I am getting cavities just typing all of this out… – From Gene
- $200 cash from Santa. We are so using that to buy a crib!! $10 restaurant gift card to Chlis/Macaroni Grill/On The Border, more CANDY, fuzzy socks, a movie ticket & free large popcorn – all from Santa

Baby Chao:
- ADORABLE sleeper in size NB that has little bees on the feet
- ADORABLE sleeper in size NB that has little lady bugs on the feet
- Very cute purple “Princess” outfit, a onesie with pants
- Pink Giraffe hooded towel 0-9 months. The hood has the little Giraffe ears & tentacles.

Gene:
- Nintendo DS Lite – Pokemon edition – From Mom & Dad
- A really expensive and fancy electric razor – From Mom & Dad
- Futurama DVD & Mario Kart for Nintendo DS – From Layla

I know I’m forgetting some stuff… I’ll update it as I remember. I also have a lot of pics I need to download off the camera and process and then upload to Flickr. Those will be coming soon.