December 26, 2010

Kinda Like Mary

This Christmas, I came as close to relating to a Bible story as I probably ever will.  Every time I heard the Christmas story, I thought "Yeah Mary, I kinda know how you feel . . . . kinda."  My Christmas experience certainly did not involve any angels suddenly appearing and telling me that I'm going to bring forth a son and that I should call him Jesus.  My Christmas season revelation was something more like this -- "Steph, you're going to bring forth a son, and you will call him Billy."   Like Mary, I'm pretty happy about the news.  I'm also pretty happy that I don't have to ride anywhere on a smelly donkey . . . 

Amelia was not quite as excited as we were to find out about her impending baby brother.  She did seem to enjoy her first Christmas though.  She got LOTS of clothes and toys.  We spent Christmas with my family in San Marcos.  Christmas Eve was the traditional tamales and Mom's mystery Mexican casserole.  It was delicious.  On Christmas day, Bill made a yummy feast of Corned Beef and Cabbage.  We ate well.  I'm still recovering.

Today was a pretty relaxed day getting ready for the week to come.  Lots of cleaning up boxes and putting away new toys and clothes.  We decided to set a good example for Amelia by delivering toys to "the sick and the shut in" at Christmas.  In reality, this just involved dropping off the family gifts at Andrew & Ashley's house -- their bunch had to miss the annual festivities because they all have had an ugly stomach flu all week.  "Delivering the toys" involved dropping them off on the doorstep, ringing the doorbell and waiving from the car as they came out to collect them. Not taking any chances on getting what they have.  I won't go into the gory details, but it sounded awful.

Next, we went grocery shopping and then, while Amelia took a long nap, Bill and I watched the Chiefs beat the Titans at the Cedar Door.  They make a pretty good spicy virgin Mary.  Under the circumstances (refer above), I felt it was appropriate.  The Chiefs gave Bill a belated Christmas present by making the playoffs.  Thanks Chiefs!!  I couldn't have gotten him anything that would have made it a better holiday.

Below are this week's photos.  The first was taken tonight after bath time.  Amelia didn't want to put on her pajamas, but she didn't seem to mind wearing the new pink headband that our friend Tiffany gave her for Christmas.  It took some serious chasing, but I did finally get her into her pjs. 

If you received our Christmas card this year, you've already seen the other photo.  Still, I wanted to preserve it here.  I doubt we'll be able to find a stocking that is big enough to stuff her in next year . . . .

(Click on the thumbnails below to view a larger version).