Christmas 2013

Well, folks, I can officially breathe out a little because the Bun did not come at Christmas.  Phew!  As many of you know, my brother has his birthday on Christmas Day (despite being due January 14), and he's not a huge fan.  Growing up it was always a hassle to organize a birthday party with friends involved, and he always refused to celebrate his birthday on any other day.  So when I was given a due date of January 18, I held my breath and said a prayer that she wouldn't come on Christmas, not only sharing Kenny's fate but making the poor kid share his special day with yet another big event.  Well, it didn't happen, so thank goodness for that!

What did happen was lots of rest for me, time with the people I love most in the world, and getting to spend my first Christmas in our home.  It really meant a lot that I got to spend the holiday in a house that I decorated, wrapped gifts in, and generally got to spend all of the Christmas season in one place.  No need to ship gifts to or from a place.  No need to strip the tree of my favorite ornaments or grab all of our stockings so that they could be there on the big day.  It was also nice to have stockings hung above our fireplace while we watched It's a Wonderful Life.  Something small, but so reminiscent of Christmas that I felt all warm and toasty inside.

My family and I also got to engage in the Klein tradition of lots of movies, both in the theater and Christmas themed ones at home.  In the rotation this year were White Christmas (only watched a little before everyone got bored and went their separate ways, but oh well), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (of course), It's a Wonderful Life, Muppet Christmas Carol, and Jeremy and I watched Bad Santa while we took decorations down yesterday.  We also saw the second installment of the Hobbit in the theater, and Jeremy, Kenny, and I saw Anchorman 2 in the theater while my parents saw 47 Ronin.  I highly recommend both of the movies that I saw, so overall it was a great movie vacation.

In regards to gifts, I was gifted lots of very useful things to help me get ready for the Bun, as well as a few fun things.  My favorite item is probably my new iPhone case from Jeremy, depicting Hello Kitty dressed as Daryl Dixon, complete with squirrels and zombie ear necklace.  It's pretty epic.  I most enjoyed giving all the hand knitted things I made, especially the Star Wars themed hats for Sahil and Lark, and the Norwegian patterned hat for Jeremy.  Jeremy's hat took me about two weeks, and I only finished on the 23rd, so I was quite proud when I wove in the last end.

Overall it was a great holiday.  Truly I am blessed to have such a loving family, and I can't wait to add the newest member!

Sorry that you can't quite see our tree!