Since both of our families live in the same town, Thanksgiving just about does us in. For the past 3 years, we have eaten two Thanksgiving dinners on the same day.... not the best idea, in case you were wondering! Fortunately, they are spaced out (one around 1 or 2 and the other at about 7), but it is still way too much food! Afterwards, this is all we feel like doing:
The day after Thanksgiving, we put up our Christmas tree and other decorations. We then watched both Home Alone movies and had cookies and hot chocolate. It was a lot of fun, but it felt a little weird because it was sunny and in the 50s that day...not very Christmasy weather.
But we didn't have to wait long for that to change! The week following Thanksgiving break, the temperature plummeted, and we were threatened with a blizzard warning. We were told to expect up to 14 inches. In the end, we only got 2 1/2, but that was okay by us! The night we were supposed to receive this blizzard, Thomas and I were walking home from the rec center and passed a soccer field, covered in newly fallen snow. It was pretty much the perfect weather for playing in the snow: about 30 degrees, no wind, great packing snow... so we stopped and played for a while. We made a snowman, but since it was spur of the moment, we didn't have any accessories for him. Thomas made him a snow-nose and we broke some branches off of a nearby tree for arms, but that's about it! It has all melted now, but it was so much fun!
And then the end of the semester arrived! I can't believe how quickly this semester went by...I always feel that way at the end, but this time it seemed especially fast. And now we only have one to go! That is, I only have one to go...Thomas has one to go with this program, and then another 5 years or so. Finals week was considerably easier for me than Thomas. I didn't have much of anything due that week since most of my classes have final papers instead of tests, and they were due the last week of class. We both have had a lot of grading to finish up, and we're just about done! Unfortunately, I still need to be working on my thesis over break, so it won't be quite as relaxing as it usually is. I recently changed my topic, and I'm now writing about Harry Potter! I'll be looking at the role of prejudice within the novels, specifically with regards to race, class, and gender. I'm super excited. I just wish I'd chosen this topic in the first place; it would have made this semester a lot easier!
So Christmas break has arrived, and with it, so are most of my siblings! My brother Mark, his wife Sarah, and their adorable little girl got here yesterday afternoon, and we spent a fun evening with them making gingerbread houses, though Mark was certainly more interested in whatever football games were going on, and Sarah & Mark's house turned out pretty...creatively, due to both Mark's and Adriana's helping. :)
Here is our finished product (you can see Sarah and Mark's in the background as well):
And this was Thomas's favorite contribution:
A few weeks ago we went to the wedding of Thomas's boss at the pool, so I thought I'd include this picture of us at her reception:
And last but not least, the latest belly picture. Here I am at 16 weeks. We had a dr.'s appointment this week and everything still looks good. We have our big ultrasound scheduled for January 4th, and hopefully we'll be able to find out the gender then!
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