Time Flies

I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown by.  I remember thinking in August about how far away the holidays were... speculating about how large I would be when I saw my Grandma, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins again for the first time since our big news... and now that has come and gone.

Christmas has always been near and dear to my heart.  Every year since I was born (and one -1 year when I was in the womb... mom has a funny story about the drive to NY while being 7 month pregnant) we have made the trek to NY for Christmas.  The people in these memories have changed, but the feeling is always the same... exciting, warm, loving, magnificent smells, people coming and going with cheery smiles, arguing over who would get the "little bed"... then arguing who would NOT get the "little bed," opening stockings Christmas Eve night...of course complete with gas ex and other embarrassing items, the annual Christmas Eve eve trip to Wegman's and the yummy lunch in their cafe', fighting for Grandma's last sugar cookie... the list could go on forever.  Throughout the years there have been some absences that are ever present and make your nose hurt (as my dad says) for a brief second, but it all comes back to remembering the great traditions and memories that we have!

This year was no different!  We have added some new characters (well, really just Ron... and little Al :)) And what's funny is, I think that the thought of the upcoming years with Little Al there to join us brought the spirit up a notch! There is that thought in the back of my head that Al may never run down Grandma's stairs Christmas morning to see if Santa felt her worthy of his visit like Kyle and I did for all of those years... and that breaks my heart for an instant, but here's to new traditions with the same great feelings!

Wow that was a big stream of consciousness... my apologies :)

Anyway... Ron and I made our way up to Corning and had a lovely dinner with Grandma and were later joined by the rest of the family.  We carried on the usual traditions, with some added laughs (see below).

It was an amazing holiday!  Minus the chorus at church, which was very much sub standard... mom even let us get away with laughing during the mass... that will never happen again, so must be documented here.

Christmas Day we made our traditional trip to Wellsville to spend some time with the Grantiers which is always fun... so many children there now!  That night Mom, Dad, Kyle, Ron and I played Catch Phrase in the Microtel Lobby for about 4 hours, and I cannot think of anything I would have rather been doing :)

The next day we got up and walked to the Texas Hot for a delicious breakfast and then headed to Homer, NY to see Allie, Jeremy and Liam!  It was my first time seeing their new home and LIAM!  He is SUCH a cutie pie and I cannot wait for he and Al to meet this summer... hopefully in their sweet little bathing suits at the lake!!

Al's Future Husband :)  Such a sweetie! 

Al's cute bikini for 2013! (Hawaii, Dad?)

Since we have gotten home we have had some amazing weekends of just relaxing and cleaning and planning and spending quality time together.  It has been amazing. 

My new job is proving to be fantastic!  Aerobics are still going strong.  We started childbirth class last week and have the most hysterical peers; it really makes the class fun!  This weekend Mom and I are throwing Charly a baby shower brunch in Danville and I cannot wait!  

The pregnancy is definitely the most uncomfortable that it has been (but is still not bad).  I started having trouble sleeping around the holidays, and just recently have started to have back pain if I stand for too long of a stretch.  All in all though Al is moving around enough to make me happy and forget all about the pain.  

Ron started painting the nursery last weekend!  Soon we will put up a chair rail and then I will post some pictures. 

Life is good! :)