Holiday Traditions, Pregnant Belly, and Snow!

We are going away for Christmas this year and it just didn't seem to make sense to get a Christmas tree. So, we are carrying on the tradition that James and I started a few years ago--decorating our music stand. We put lights and ornaments all over it and it is standing in as our Christmas tree. I think Ben is just as pleased with it as he would be with a real tree.

We had just finished decorating our "tree." It looks much better in person, although still a little strange.

We had the camera out, so we took my first "belly shot" of the pregnancy. This is at 25 weeks.

This photo was not staged. Ben is indeed reading "ACP Hospitalist" and enjoying it. I think it was mainly because there is a picture of the moon on the front.

We have had the craziest weather this week (for Seattle). We've had snow on the ground since last Sunday and really cold temperatures. The drain pipe from our washing machine actually froze, which caused a flood in our house when I tried to do a load of laundry. After some creativity, crossed fingers, and 24 hours, the pipe thawed out and now I just pour hot water down the drain before each load of laundry. We've only had one minor flood since the big one. I am describing it rather cavalierly, but believe me, I was not so relaxed on Tuesday when we had no clean clothes in the house, water all over the floor, and no way to thaw out the stupid plastic (yes, plastic) pipe! This was on the heels of having to replace all 4 tires on our car on Monday. And James is working in the ICU at Harborview right now, which means he's never here to deal with these crises. That's the end of my rant.

Church was cancelled today because of the snow, and Ben & I went outside to play. I had been trying to get up the courage to take him out for the last several days, but it has been so cold! Today it finally warmed up a little. He was a little unsure about the "crunchy snow" (the wind was really blowing last night and made kind of a crust on top of everything), but still had fun.