29 weeks and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

Well, the holidays are now behind us (although we have one last night of Hanukkah to celebrate tonight!) but what a great Hanukkah and Christmas it was!! In the week before Christmas we had a door decorating contest at work, an over-the-top work holiday party, and tons of work treats of all sweet sorts (you'll see the picture of Meghan's mustache cookies!).  I didn't win the door decorating contest (with a door titled "It's Raining Men(orahs)"), but I did tie for second place.  The door was pretty impressive, if I do say so myself - you can check out a photo on my facebook page. 

Last week I spent a couple of days before Xmas in Maine with my godmothers and my mom - baking, listening to Christmas carols on loop, and bickering about various things (no, Kelly's cookies do NOT have alcohol in them MOM!).  Kelly's famous cookies arrived right on time and we added her delicious cookies to our gluttonous cookie stash (you'll see the picture of the hilarious cookie bag decorations that Kelly's mom Jensie helped with!) - the big winners this year were the honey cookie and the white chocolate cranberry... but all were pretty amazing!  Rich joined us on Saturday in time to catch an excellent Pats game, snack on our various sweet labors, and pig out on Christmas dinner.  Sunday we spent the whole morning opening a truly amazing stack of presents - once again everyone was spoiled in the best possible way.  After a late breakfast we took off for Cambridge to join the Foster/Burke/Diallo/Parizale family for their festivities.  As always, Rich's mom is an amazing cook and we fattened ourselves up just a little bit more.  Pnut got some great gifts from his uncles and aunties (aunties and uncles in Boston, aunties in DC, aunties aunites everywhere!) - he was totally spoiled before he is even out and about!!!  It was a great Hanukkah and a fabulous Christmas!

There are so many people who get super stressed out about the holidays, but I love love love them.  This year was no exception.  I love being able to spend special time with my friends and family, treating each other to special trinkets and yearly-awaited gifts (whether something big or something small), and just setting aside time to laugh with each other.  Rich and I so very lucky to be surrounded by amazing women and men in our lives - my godmothers, my mom, and all of Rich's family have done so much for us over the years, and have already been so generous with pnut.  Thank you to everyone who made this holiday as special as ever - and thank you to my husband and our families who make our traditions work, even it if means taking a train and then a two hour drive, eating a little bit later, or opening presents a day later.  We can't wait til pnut can celebrate our traditions with us!!  Only 11 weeks to go... can't believe how fast time has flown!