December photos (part one)

Christmas baking. This boy can ice a good cookie!

The valance mom helped me make. A nice touch to a formerly bare kitchen window.

Dad's Christmas gift! A few years ago in the UAE our hotel rooms each had one of these and we all got rather attached to it- especially my coffee snob connoisseur father. We were delighted when Williams & Sonoma started selling them (well, an updated, American version) and knew it was the perfect gift for dad. He was delighted and the rest of us were delighted to help him break it in.

Christmas weekend with my family didn't exactly go as planned. A certain husband of mine got the flu (like, the actual respiratory flu, the kind that can be avoided with a flu shot - hence the reason I didn't get it from him, but anyways...) So I was left very sad and with a hard decision. Leave sick husband at home or miss the entire Christmas. I ended up compromising by leaving Devin (who insisted I go) after he had stabilized a bit and getting home in time for dinner/gifts and returning early the following morning. It was quick but worth it, though it wasn't the same without Dev! It did make me realize that he's my main family now and I'm incomplete without him - which is a good thing. :)

Pops and baby H are going to have such a great group of cousins to join! How fun that next Christmas there will be an almost one-year-old and a 7 month old! Have I mentioned how elated I am that one of my sisters is having a baby just a few months after me?!

Instead of a sibling exchange, we each buy everyone one of our favorite things. This was the guy stuff that I took home for Devin. I don't have a picture of the girl items...but should probably do a separate post on those great gifts!

And now for a couple non-Christmas items. The thing that is on our minds more than Christmas...our baby (that will presumably be born sometime in the next 4 weeks)! 

I've been spending my evenings washing up diapers and cute clothes and blankets. And organizing the baby's room and starting to pack a hospital bag. It's all surprisingly fun.
Gender neutral clothes are hard to come by, but the ones I'm finding are super cute and tend to fit my style perfectly.