christmas comes but ...twice a year?

The past week has been pretty darn sweet. We got to see Mike's parents and family at the beginning of last week, then my mom came down and spent a little time with us at the end of the week, and my cute niece Esther got to stay with us for a night. THREE VISITORS IN ONE WEEK! SCORE! Just in-case you don't already know, we are blessed to have a GREAT extended family. Not only that, but they left some Christmas presents (woo hoo) to save on shipping!

As a precursor to this story: Cecily has been really excited about any and all presents since her birthday- the girl can't get enough of 'em.

The presents brought to us by the Vincent's have been neatly tucked away in a box until December 25th, but the presents from the Lay side were sitting out in the living room after my mom left to go back home yesterday.......... and I went to take a shower............ and I came back to this:

That is a fabulous waffle iron from my parents (thanks grammy and papa lay!) and some freeze dried strawberries, which are heaven as far as I'm concerned. Instead of re-wrapping them, I'm just going to put them away and take them out again at Christmas (call me scrooge).

I walked out and Cecily held up the can over her head and yelled "YAY, MOM! PRESENTS! PRESENTS FOR MINE CECILY!"

She then started to open another and was 1/2 way done before I could (dripping wet) stop her. It was actually a gift for her little brother, but since he's still a while away from playing with them, I decided to let her open it and have some fun. She'd already seen it was some sort of toy, and frankly, I didn't want to fight it. When she saw what it was she started saying "Cars, mommy! yittle cars! Cecily's yittle cars!" Ever since then, she's been running around with "mine yittle cars" and putting them in her pockets and having a great time. Again, thanks Grammy and Papa Lay.

Mike got me these candle holders off EBay and they came in the mail a week or so ago, so we're all about the early christmas cheer in this house. When I was growing up, my parents had (and still have) a set of wise men candle holders which hold big 12 inch tall candles. Every Christmas Eve we light them and let them burn all the way down before we have to go to bed. It was one of our very favorite traditions. My parents have had the candle holders since the first Christmas they were married. I found these ones which are almost identical to my parents' and Mike was nice enough to let them be an early Christmas gift.

Another bit of info- I had an appointment with my midwife this morning and there's still confusion about my due date......... On the ultrasound the baby's gestational age puts my due date at the 23rd, but my midwife thinks it's best to stay with the later date just incase. Yeah, I was REAL excited about that one. Anyway, it is somewhere between January 23rd and Feburary 3rd. So, I'm either 30 weeks or 28 1/2 weeks along. I wouldn't count on calling to congratulate us on the 23rd, though................. Either way, it's getting closer! We're getting anxious to meet this little dude of ours. Love him more than anything already.