T'was the week before Christmas...

Sunday marked the official start of the Christmas season for our family. We started the day by dropping off Peyton at his Tutu's house (Ian's Mom) for some babysitting fun. Meanwhile Ian and I headed off to the Seattle Symphony where we had tickets to see Handel's Messiah. The symphony was fantastic - Ian and I had only heard bits and pieces of Handel's Messiah and were blown away by the entire work. They had a full chorale ensemble and four soloists as well as the symphony. Our seats weren't the best (second row, Orchestra) but at $20 a piece - reasonable... After the symphony we high tailed it up to Ian's brother, Nate's house where he and his wife Kirsten hosted our "Wrenchy" family Christmas. It was a lot of fun to be with family and Ian's dad even drove up from Portland to be with us so it felt complete with the exception of Ian's Step mom who was with her own kids. Peyton, going on one pathetic 30 minute nap for the entire day, did amazingly well - probably all the attention from Grandpa, Tutu and Uncle Dave. We had a lovely dinner, did our gift exchange and then had to pack up for the hour + drive home for Peyton to get some much needed sleep.

This coming weekend, my family arrives for Christmas. I'm looking forward to a house full of people. Peyton is looking forward to spending time with his cousins too! It'll be our first Christmas all together with all three kids so the focus will be different than it has been for years - I can't wait. I've been baking up a storm these last two weeks - Gingerbread Men, Coconut Macaroons, Rugelagh, White Chocolate dipped Licorice and of course, the traditional Andres family Pizelles. Most of it has been given away, but we will keep some of the Pizelles and Gingies (Peytons's favorite -he asks for them by name "coke-ies") for Christmas.

The presents are all wrapped and under the tree, now all I have to do is get my house clean - oh dredge. I'm so not in the cleaning way these days - my body just tires out so quickly. It's so humbling to plan out this great ambitious list of "to do's" only to be limited in the physical.

Baby update: Hmmmm, not really too much to report - I'm in my third trimester now so it's getting close - nervously close...two kids? Really? I'm definitely carrying differently than with Peyton. He was spread across me and my belly remained wide and relatively flat - this one is definitely more out in front - much more how I SHOULD look in my opinion! Baby has gotten much more active too, I can actually watch my belly move at times when "it" is really cruizin' around in there. We're going in for another look next week to see if we can determine for sure if "it" is a HE or a SHE so keep your fingers crossed!!

If you haven't seen it yet (or would like to see it again), here is a link to our online Christmas greeting...Enjoy!! (It takes a while to load depending on your connection - if it gets stuck just click on the logo to get it going again)