Let the month o' parties begin...

December is always a very busy month for us, what with all the Christmas-related events we throw or are invited to. But this year is particularly busy. On top of all the Christmas events, we also have a number of baby-related events going on -- because all of our friends decided to get pregnant at about the same time as us. :)

So here's a brief rundown of our December schedule, starting with last weekend:

• Saturday, 12/5 -- surprise bridal shower for Baley in the afternoon; birthday party for Hilary in the evening
• Sunday, 12/6 -- Christmas shindig at Matt and Carrie's [which we ended up missing -- sorry we couldn't be there!]
• Friday, 12/11 -- PEF Christmas party
  
• Saturday, 12/12 -- baby shower for Andréa
• Sunday, 12/13 -- baby shower for me! Christmas Vespers service in the evening
• Friday, 12/18 -- work holiday party for me; David speaking at the last PEF meeting before break
  
• Saturday, 12/19 -- day-long childbirth "boot camp" at the hospital; work Christmas party for David in the evening
  

We were thinking about hosting a joint small group Christmas party at some point, but we're just not sure where to fit it in... Princeton's winter break starts on 12/19, and I imagine most of the folks in our small groups will be traveling starting that weekend. The ambitious hostess in me really wants to reprise the Christmas dessert extravaganza from last year -- that was so much fun! But realistically, it looks like we may have to settle for Christmas-themed desserts at our normal small group meetings instead...

But at least we're certainly not going to be deprived of opportunities to spend time with all our friends this month!

Last weekend kicked things off for us, with Baley's surprise bridal shower and Hilary's birthday party. Baley's shower was one of the few surprise parties I've ever been to that actually worked out as a surprise. :) Andréa, the hostess and organizer of the event, asked Baley to go Christmas shopping with her that morning. Earlier in the week, while they were planning their girly outing, Andréa got Baley's host family, the McMahans (in whose home the shower was held) to tell Baley to invite her friends Andréa and Erik over for lunch on Saturday -- so Baley thought she was getting a morning of shopping and then a small lunch with friends. Baley and Andréa walked into the McMahans' home at around 12:30 -- and dozens of Baley's friends jumped up to surprise her! Hats off to Andréa and the McMahans for a surprise well-planned. :)

We had so much fun showering Baley with love. We played a few silly games (all of which were actually really fun), ate tons of amazing homemade food, made a scrapbook for Baley with favorite recipes and photos (including Polaroids! from an actual Polaroid camera! who knew they still existed?), and gave Baley a bunch of great wedding gifts. Congratulations again, Baley and Greg -- we're so excited for you two!

And then we capped off our evening on Saturday with Hilary's 29th birthday party. The party had a really cute "miniatures" theme, ostensibly because 29 is a "miniature" 30, but really because -- Hilary and Steven announced their pregnancy that evening!! It was funny how discreet they were being about the announcement -- they'd printed out a couple sonograms and put them in tiny frames, and placed them on the table amidst the food. But most people didn't pick up on the news. Despite my best efforts to lay really broad hints about how much I looooved the decorations, and how cuuuuute the centerpieces were... I guess we as a group are all a little too subtle. :) Steven and Hilary finally just made a formal announcement, to the cheers of all their friends.

It's amazing how the pregnancy "bug" has been spreading in our circles lately... At one point, at Hilary's birthday party, all of the women in the room were pregnant. How crazy is that? But how exciting to have so many friends with whom to share this experience!

I wish I'd thought to bring our camera to these events last weekend... Rest assured, it'll be on hand for the rest of our jam-packed schedule! Even without photos, though, I wanted to commemorate both Baley's shower and Hilary's birthday party -- we feel so blessed to be part of such an amazing community here in Princeton, and we wanted to proclaim that to one and all. :)

Bump Watch: 32 Weeks

It's official -- I've arrived in the not-so-comfortable stage of pregnancy. I'm pretty sure Eggi has a foot or a fist firmly lodged in my ribs, and I noticed a definite waddle to my walk this morning... And wow, you should see my belly move when he kicks or rolls over now! For all that this has been a week of change in the way that I feel, I'm not sure how much the baby bump has grown since the last bump watch; let's compare and see!


And let's see what BabyCenter.com has to say about being 32 weeks pregnant:

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, he'll gain a third to half of his birth weight during the next 7 weeks as he fattens up for survival outside the womb.

Oof, 3.75 pounds, give or take -- I believe it! Eggi's becoming more and more assertive as he moves around in there... He's developed a routine of sorts, where he seems to stick his head way out to my left side, and then sweeeeeps across my belly to the other side. So from the outside, you see a distinct large lump appear on my left, and then roll over to my right. Some of the students we had over for Thanksgiving saw him do this particular acrobatic move -- what a fun and exciting moment to share with friends!

So I'll take the soreness in the ribs, the aching back, the misaligned hips, the difficulty getting up from a sitting position... Every time we see my belly move, or feel the little guy thumping away, it's a little reminder that it's all so totally worth it. :)

In other baby-related news, we've picked up the rest of our nursery furniture! So hopefully this weekend, we'll build the new bookcase and dresser (and by "we," of course, I mean my handy and strong and handsome husband) and put the room in its final furniture arrangement... And then we can start thinking about wall decor (and this time, by "we," I mean more me) and put the finishing touches on Eggi's room!

Seven and a half weeks left to go...

Thanksgiving with the Keddies!

As I mentioned last week, David and I decided to host Thanksgiving for his family this year. I'm not quite far enough along to be officially restricted from traveling, but I'm starting to get to the uncomfortably large stage, so I'm thankful we decided not to travel for any of the holidays this year. And David's family very graciously agreed to come out to our neck of the woods to spend Thanksgiving with us!

Since we were already hosting a holiday dinner, we decided we'd throw it open to PEF students who live too far from home to go back for the short Thanksgiving break. We ended up having 7 students (including one alumna!) join us for dinner -- it was SO much fun having everyone over, and introducing these friends to our family!

So with 13 for dinner, the OCD planner in me borrowed a page from Jamie Rankin's book -- whenever he does his amazing 10-course Titanic dinners, he always has a schedule that lays out preparation, cooking and serving times for each course. Now, I'm certainly not saying I'm any kind of gourmet chef, or that this simple holiday dinner was anything as elaborate as Jamie's dinners -- but I love lists and schedules, and having this basic schedule posted on our fridge was a lifesaver!

Even with as much advance prep and planning as I could muster, everything was scheduled to sort of pile up at around 12:30 on Thursday... Good thing I had a faithful army of student sous-chefs to help out! Katrina and Victoria came over a few hours early to help peel and chop potatoes and put the finishing touches on other dishes, and then when the rest of the students arrived at around 1, we put a whole group of them to work plucking thyme leaves for the roasted carrots. I wish I'd gotten a photo of this particular assembly line -- Katrina, Victoria, Natalie, and Daniel crowded around the counter, coming up with ever more efficient ways to strip thyme... Thanks for all your help!

All told, we had way too much food... But that's a good problem to have, right? On the menu were the roasted turkey, a honey-baked ham (a panic buy on Tuesday evening, when we thought we might have as many as 18 people over), mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, wild rice and sausage stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and brussels sprouts (the last three brought down by David's brother Iain). Again, I wish I'd thought to get individual shots of the dishes -- but I'm afraid we were all too busy serving, eating and talking to even think of photos. And if I'm not thinking about photos, you know it had to have been good dinner conversation. :)

Eventually, I pulled out the camera and took a few shots of the dinner...








And then for dessert -- two pumpkin pies, two apple pies (one made by David's mom, the other by Iain's girlfriend Erin), and a cheesecake!


Yeah, so David and I have been living on leftovers for the last several days... It's all just as good reheated!

We're so thankful to have had the opportunity to host so many friends and loved ones. It's always so much fun to spend time with David's family -- and we love introducing PEFers to the stars of all the great stories David tells about his childhood and his family. :)




So thankful for each and every one of you!