Christmas 2011

This last week has been a bit crazy. Our Christmas celebrations began the Monday before Christmas with my annual dinner with my girlfriends. It was a great night, and since most of us have little ones, or little ones on the way, it was filled with adorable little outfits, headbands, and bows. I've said this before, but I cannot believe I was possibly ever disappointed that this babe was a girl. The baby girl things are so cute I can't stand it! Tue night John had his friends over, and let's just say that that night prepared me for what taking care of a newborn will be like. I was up and down all night trying to quiet them down. Wed was a bit of an unexpected adventure. John and I were both pretty exhausted from the night before, and I couldn't wait to get home from work and go to bed. Well, instead of napping on the couch, we got to head to St Jude Labor and Delivery for a practice round. I had some bleeding and was admitted to L&D where we spent the next 5 hours. Everything with baby was perfectly fine, but I was given the orders to be on light bed rest due to the bleeding and some contractions that I was having while in L&D. This meant that we had to cancel our plans to go to the Mission Inn for dinner/Christmas lights the next evening, which was really disappointing-especially since I made those damn dinner reservations in September. Next year, I suppose...we also had to cancel our Yosemite trip planned for this week. We don't want to chance anything by being too far away from the hospital.

On Christmas Eve, John and I relaxed around the house and watched x-mas movies. We exchange our gifts on xmas eve since xmas day is pretty jammed packed. I have to say I was quite spoiled. My main gift was having stones added to my wedding band. It's driven me crazy that when my wedding band turns, the plain band shows and not the stones (petty, I know!), so John took it back to our jeweler and had the diamonds completed around the band. I love it and am one lucky lady. In addition to that, I got a few outfits (that I can't wait to fit into, post baby) and some funny stocking stuffers. X-mas morning was spent at the inlaws. We had breakfast and did a gift exchange, then headed to my parents for presents and dinner prep. I wasn't much help since I was couch-bound, but it was a nice relaxing day. That evening, John's fam joined us for Christmas dinner, and as usual, we stuffed ourselves to the brim with delicious turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, and more. Baby fared quite well this Christmas. She got more gifts than anyone and she's not even here yet.

Here's a look at some of the loot from x-mas day:

New Front Loaders! Aren't they glorious?! Our washer/dryer was about 15 years old and on its way out. We would have to dry our clothes for 2-3 dry cycles just to get them damp. Needless to say, with all the laundry in our future, it was time to upgrade. Thanks Mom and Dad!!

New goose down comforter!

Uggs for the whole fam! It's not Christmas day without a new pair of Uggs, and this time, we all got a piece of the action.

Mama's Uggs:

Dad's Uggs:

Baby's Uggs:

Funny story about babe's uggs. We actually got two of the exact same pairs, one from each grandma. But, one grandma did her holiday shopping much earlier than the other. 5 years earlier to be exact. Every Easter, the Hall's have an egg hunt. My MIL and FIL hide plastic eggs all over the house. Some eggs are filled with candy, some with $1 bills, some with $5, some with $10, $20, and the "Big Kahuna" egg has a whopping 100 smacks for the lucky person who finds it. The hunt gets very competitive, and the hiding places are pretty extreme. One year J found it taped to the underside of the toilet tank lid. Anyway, while searching for the Big Kahuna on Easter Sunday about 5 years ago, John and I stumbled upon a little box. Inside the little box was an infant pair of pink Ugg boots. When John asked his mom why she had a pair of baby Uggs in the closet, she answered that Nordstrom delivered them to her mistakenly and she needed to return them. John joked with me later on that she probably bought them for her future grandkid, but I thought that was crazy since none of us were going to be getting married any time soon, let alone having babies. Well, sure enough, on Christmas morning we opened a familiar package. My MIL admitted that she bought those for her first girl grandchild, and had to wait 5 years to be able to gift them. Talk about getting xmas shopping done early! So, now this little girl has not only 1, but two pairs of uggs waiting for her little feet to grow into.

And speaking of Baby Girl, here are some recent pics taken @ 31 weeks exactly. Only 9 weeks to go (plus or minus a few)! I had a doc appt yesterday, and they scheduled the rest of my visits up through my due date. I only have 6 more appts until D-Day. Craziness!!

Christmas Breakdown

Christmas has come and gone and it was a wonderful three day event for us! We spent Christmas Eve eating pizza and watching Christmas movies with the inlaws. Afterwards, John and I went home, made hot tea, set the TV's to the holiday music channel, and we opened our gifts to each other. We used to always open our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve because we would each go to our own families' houses on Christmas Day. Well, even though we would be spending the entire day together, we decided that in the interest of time (we had to be at J's parents early in the am for presents and breakfast, followed by my fam right afterwards), we would open our gifts the night before. It was such a sweet, cozy night! We started off by giving our lil kitties their stockings. They were on a catnip-induced high for the remainder of the evening. I was a spoiled girl, as usual. This year for Christmas, I was really hoping to get a membership to our local Yoga studio that I had heard many great things about. I have thought about joining many times for over a year now, but it's a bit pricey and I already have a gym membership. Well, John must have been paying attention to my numerous, not so subtle hints because I got that membership along with some awesome Yoga gear. Poor John was funny...after I opened my gifts he told me that he had always thought that workout related items were on a list of things to NEVER give your gf/wife as a gift. I guess that would be true, but I really wanted it so I'm a happy, un-offended camper! I started Yoga this week, and I love it! It is as wonderful as I remember it being (I did Yoga a lot back in high school/early college), although I'm sad to report that I am 0% flexible. I used to ice skate competitively, and part of that training regiment included hours of stretching and weight training, so I know that at one point in my life I was capable of being a bendy pretzel bobcat, but those days are long gone. I am anxious to get them back!
OK, back to Christmas...Christmas morning started with us dashing out of the house bright and early, making a quick stop at Starbucks (yes, I discovered last year that the Starbucks inside Vons is open x-mas day...sad for them, awesome for me!). We headed to John's parents' house to do presents and breakfast with John's bro's and parents. We had a delish early am feast then headed over to my parents to do presents with them. Afterwards, the boys played pool and the gals worked on the dinner feast. This was the point in the day where I should have said to myself "Tracie, you are about to eat a big Christmas dinner, so maybe all this snacking on appetizers is not a good idea". Alas hindsight is 20/20. John's entire fam came out to my parents' house for dinner. It was a great night...even though both John and I at different points in the night thought we were going to puke as a direct result of over-eating. It was bad.
The day after Christmas, we did nothing until about 5pm, when we ventured out of the house to good ol' Chilis so John could use his giftcard. That is seriously his fav. restaurant.
All in all, x-mas was a success! Coming up...NYE Pajama-Jam! Can't wait!

Merry Merry Merry

Well, it's Christmas Eve Eve and things are getting pretty exciting over at the Hall house. Presents are wrapped and sittin' pretty under Wilbur the 3rd (yes, we name our Christmas tree every year...and every year he ends up with the name Wilbur).

This picture does it no justice-it was taken a couple of weeks ago and now ol' Wilbur is literally overtaken by presents. We have a fun little holiday agenda. It started last Sunday when we did Christmas with my side of the family who would not be able to make it to Casa Konrad on Christmas Day. My aunt, uncle, and little cousin Zoe came over for Christmas # 1. Watching Z open her gifts made me realize how much more fun x-mas can be with little people around. She was so funny and excited while opening her gifts...but you can see for yourself-that is an expression that can only be induced by the sheer excitement of a Tangled doll!

That same weekend, my parent's had their annual holiday party. It was great fun, and Mr. Grinch even made an appearance!

This is a short week for us at work, and we wrapped up the week 1/2 day today. Tonight we are headed to the Mission Inn for dinner with the fam. It's amazing at Christmas time, and who knows, I just may bust out my old ice skates and show off my moves (assuming I still have them...). Tomorrow night will be spent at my in-laws, and Christmas will be at the parent's as usual! Can't wait to watch everyone open their goodies...don't want to brag, but John and I got good gifties for everyone this year.

Merry Christmas to All!!

I Don't Know If We're There Yet...

John and I have been together for 7.5 years. Once things moved past college and got a little more serious and grown up I thought it would be cute to send out a Christmas card from Tracie, John, and Cody the cat. I saw the color drain from John's face when I mentioned it. Mind you, were were living together at this point, but he responded with the good ol' Ross from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. line "I just don't know if we're really quite there yet". As a side note, John and I are FRIENDS freaks and we can quote just about any line from any episode. We dominate at Scene It. For those of you who aren't as FRIENDS savvy, Ross is dating a girl named Mona, and things are going really great until she innocently suggests that they turn their cute pic in front of Rockefeller center into their Christmas card for that year. Ross freaks out and tells her that he doesn't think that they are quite there yet. Chaos ensues and in an effort to prove his committment to her he ends up asking Mona to move in with him. Good times.

Well, every year I threaten to send out "family" Christmas cards, and every year John responds with "I just don't know if we're quite there yet". Well, a funny thing happened last year. John decided that it was time to take a wife. So, in my opinion, that means that we are "there". So, buya John-in your face!

Merry Christmas from the Hall's

Super cute and adorable Christmas card courtesy of 4 Leaf Boutique