Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  Being in my third trimester of my pregnancy, Mike and I decided that not traveling during the holiday season would be best.  So we spent Christmas here in Massachusetts, just the 3 or should I say 4 of us, including Mookie.  I'm not going to lie, waking up Christmas Eve morning was a bit emotional.  I thought of how my family was getting together at my sister's house and how we would be missing out on other holiday festivities with our close friends.  Being away from family and friends is hard, it's even harder during holidays or special occasions.  But, I also thought of how with us starting our own little family, it would be great to start some traditions of our own.  So the weekend before the holiday, we went shopping for our Christmas Eve dinner.  Well to make a long story short, the ham in the oven almost caused a fire and I ended up burning my fingers.  I decided to give up on dinner, we ate left overs, Skyped with the family, watched Christmas movies the rest of the night, and each of us opened one gift.  It still ended up being a good night.  Christmas morning I woke up energized and vowed that that ham was going to be cooked.  I made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, we opened a couple more gifts, and I started Christmas Eve dinner all over again. The sides were already made and the ham and pumpkin pie made it to the oven with success!  All in all...everything turned out great!  

I'm already looking forward to next year when we have our baby girl here with us celebrating Christmas with her family and friends.  I can already picture her ripping through presents and helping mom bake and cook.  We can't wait!

Santa!

One of the nice things about living on base is the great community services different groups on base provide.  Today, the Vet Clinic on base was offering Santa pet pictures!  I took Mookie down there and he got his first picture with Santa.  He was such a good boy and everyone there gave him such nice compliments. He's saving his candy cane treat for later!  

First Official Snowfall

Winter has officially started!  When I hear the beeps of the plows in the early morning hours and wake up to accumulated snow on the ground...I consider that to be the first official snowfall.  It's funny, when I send pictures of the snow to family and friends in Arizona they tell me how pretty it looks.  I would agree...the FIRST snowfall is pretty, but once you have to continue your daily routine in this mess, it's not so pretty! Mookie and I took a quick walk while the snow turned to freezing rain.  He seemed to enjoy it at first.  He seemed more hyper on this walk than normal...the snow and cold probably woke him up!  This is our second winter here in the Northeast and we're looking forward to making the most of it or sitting in our PJs most nights! ;-)

Mookie's first snowfall of 2013

Thanksgiving Week

Last year we were thankful to have spent Thanksgiving in Ohio with Mike's family which was great!  This year we were blessed again to have them come to us, here in Massachusetts.  My amazing mother in law and her fiance came to spend the holiday with us.  We loved having them here even though the time went by way too fast.  It was nice having family with us again.  We had fun preparing for Thanksgiving dinner, playing games, and just spending quality time together.  Thank you for all you do for us and Baby Mavrakis.  We appreciate it more than you know.  We love you and see you soon...when there will be 3 of us!  

Wednesday night dinner at The Tavern at the Square

Wednesday Night Thanksgiving Day Prep

Dave and Faye

Homemade cranberry sauce...it was delicious!

Pumpkin Roll Time

The guys playing Connect 4

Ending our night with Pictionary!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mookie doing what he does best!

Turkey brined, buttered and ready for the oven!

Turkey is done!

My very first turkey...I'm so pleased with how it came out!

Our First Thanksgiving in Massachusetts

The star of the dinner

Love them!

Mike's first turkey carving!

Dinner is served!

The Day After...

The boys did some heavy lifting and brought up some of Baby Mavrakis' nursery furniture.  We had dinner that night at Bonefish Grill...yum! Then we came home and put up some Christmas decorations.  It was our last night and we had a wonderful 4 days together.

Daddy after lifting that very heavy piece!  Baby Mavrakis appreciated it, Dad!

Our first Christmas tree while in Massachusetts

Saturday I decided to put together the stroller that my sister Nancy bought for Baby Mavrakis!  We LOVE it!  So simple yet so versatile! Thank you!

Infant carrier...just click the car seat in and it's ready!

Reclined for bassinet style

Facing mommy or daddy

Baby Mavrakis Ultrasound

Today we spent the day seeing our baby girl!  We picked up Mike's mom and her fiance from the airport who had come for Thanksgiving week and headed to Goldenview Ultrasound in Brookline, MA.  We thought it would be nice for them to experience this special moment with us hearing and seeing Baby Mavrakis in 3D!  It was amazing to see our baby girl in more detail! She stayed cuddled up for most of the 15 minutes that we got to see her.  She had her hand cradled under her chin and seemed so relaxed...let's hope that is a preview of the future. ;-)  Towards the end she seemed to get tired of us watching her and gave us a big yawn and stretch!  We got a video as well that I will try to download later, but for now here she is at 29 weeks and 2 days...We love you so much already Baby Mavrakis!

Relaxing!

Profile

All crunched up!

 Smiling!

 Giving us a yawn!

 Pictures with Baby Mavrakis

Our Little Family!

A Christmas Story The Musical

Today was such fun!  Mike surprised me a few weeks ago with tickets to the musical, A Christmas Story.  It's his favorite Christmas movie and when he found out they were in Boston, he had to go!    We headed downtown to Boston's theater district which was neat in itself because that was my first time seeing that side of town.  We started off with a late lunch at Rock Bottom.  Then we headed to The Wang Theater which was just beautiful inside!  The show was a hit.  Dan Lauria, the dad from Wonder Years played the grown up Ralphie and narrated the musical.  He was awesome and it was so cool seeing him up close, we were front row!  Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside the theater, but Mike sneaked in one before the show started.  It was a great day/night.  Thanks honey for the tickets!

The Lobby

Blurry, but our only picture!