thanks grandma

we opened the presents on boxing day (lost track of time, but technically, it's christmas day in the US). christian was saying "Elmo" and then "mao" which is cat in chinese, but he said it slowly because he was trying make a bubble with his drool... and of course, he said "cat". I love his expression when he heard the music - priceless.

holiday

the dog and the kid love the balcony. christian helped to put up the amy ruppel's christmas decals on the window. he loved the birds. the tree was bare, we decided to collect ornaments slowly. that way, every year, there'll be something new. turkey was good but the legs were a little dry this time - still trying to figure out the new oven's temperament. had a sip of wine and dessert trifle was spiked with cognac. why do i always feel like drinking when i'm pregnant? christian was excited about all his presents - he had so many this year (!) the videos were too large to be embedded here (more to come, mom - they take a long time to upload.) so here are the links. this and this.

i am in my hotel room, presentation's done, tomorrow it's all schmoozing. jetlag has set in. it's almost 9 pm. time for bed. for some reason, walking in the cold doesn't make me feel pregnant. all that winter bundling hides the bump so well no one gave up their seat for me on the bus. my feet are killing me.

flower baby

christmas eve, the best i've ever had. i cooked while christian had fun with the flowers eric bought. he wanted flowers in his hair, and so we obliged.

it was a memorable christmas. we have our first tree, and we celebrated it first time alone as a family. the evening ended peacefully, we made it to family mass and then slept in really late and woke up to the aroma of pine needles. the babe in my belly was obviously delighted, she was vigourous both on christmas eve and christmas day. hope you had fun too.