Lots of food and lots of presents, that’s the way the Dickens Christmas rolls.
The presents stack up as family arrives
The kids have a ball opening their presents
Audrey with Grandma
More Browns gear for the baby
Aside from the Browns gear we scored for the baby, Dave got a Baby Bjorn and I got this amazingly soft and beautiful throw that Amber was coveting.
It was another great Christmas!
Mom and Leslie threw Dave and I a baby shower with close family and friends on Saturday. It was terrific! We had a nice buffet breakfast plus cake! Awesome!! Plus, we made out with lots of loot. Thanks to everyone who came, we appreciate all our gifts!
Unopened gifts
The cake!
Opening gifts
Amber predicts the baby’s name
Baby Browns jersey
Our pile of loot!
The baby Browns jersey fits Marmalade perfectly!
A nice quiet Christmas morning for Dave and I. Our last quiet Christmas, I’m predicting.
Dave got a book of genius Sudoku puzzles, a Bruce Springsteen CD, an indoor/outdoor weather station, and some cute boxers. I got two Pink Martini CDs, a book of Sci-Fi-inspired baby names, and a fabulous new digital camera!!! I love love love it and I’m so excited to stop using my crappy old HP.
Mom and Gene came over for Christmas dinner in the afternoon. Mom bought us this insanely large standing rib roast – almost 11 1/2 pounds! For those of you in the know, it appeared to include all seven ribs. It took 4 1/4 hours to cook.
It was delish!! We had it with roasted vegetables and some tasty asparagus.
Ha, but was Mom disappointed when I served her after-dinner coffee in one of our new Browns mugs!
Mom got me two pairs of crocs, one black and one brown. Not really something I thought I’d want, but my feet are growing and I’m thinking slip-ons are the way to go since I can’t see my feet and I’m starting to not be able to reach them.
Dave got a 6-month membership to the Brew-of-the-Month club. I also got a cute Geek Inside shirt and the baby got a Geekling onesie.
Mom got a massage gift certificate and Gene got a book by Lou Dobbs. Mom got Gene this fabulous back massager/heat pad that he can put in his recliner. All in all, we made out like bandits!!
We got our first shower gift! How exciting! We asked for the Margo Pack N Play from Graco because it was well reviewed, affordable, and cute! It’s sage green with teal blue accents, and includes a bassinet as well as a changing station. We’re expecting this to be the baby’s temporary home between birth and whenever we put him in his crib.
I set it up all by myself and figured this would be the first in many experiences of “Insert Part A into Slot Z.” We’ve had it inspected by the cats and they seem to approve. I wonder just how much they’ll be in it once the baby arrives? They didn’t seem to want to stay there when we put them in it.
We also cleared out the room and tried to get a feel for how we’ll lay out the furnishings.
The shelves I painted will probably end up acting as a window seat to store books and toys.
We got our crib set! It’s gorgeous and includes a bumper, skirt, quilt and crib sheet. And look at these cool plant stands Dave found that match the pattern so perfectly!
we also got the crib mattress! When we bought the crib from ChildSpace, we got a credit towards the purchase of a mattress. We choose the highly rated Classica II foam mattress by Colgate. With our credit, we got a good deal on it.
Our crib will hopefully be in by February, but I’m still not getting my hopes up.
We got a changing table today for cheap off of Craig’s List.
It’s in really good condition but could use repainting, which means more fun for me. Interestingly enough, the people we bought it from are from Lakewood and Westlake (Ohio), which makes them practically neighbors to Dave’s family. In fact, the guy remembers Dave’s sister from grade school. Why is EVERYBODY from Cleveland?!
Last, but definitely not least, Tyra gave me her glider and ottoman as an early shower gift. It’s gorgeous and matches the room perfectly. I will have pictures to post soon.
All in all, things are coming along pretty well!
Presents is what Christmas is all about, right? I got all of our presents wrapped up this weekend and put them under the tree. About half of them are being shipped out so our tree will be bare by the time Christmas rolls around.
Here they are, looking pretty!
And here’s my favorite wrapping job – it looks like a big Christmas cracker!
We’ve started getting baby gifts!
This is the first gift we got for the baby, from a co-worker. She took great pains to say the name several times – it sounds funny!!
It’s a lovely, soft blanket in bright colors from IKEA. Yay!
Then Cristin gave me Toby socks!!!!! What can I even say? LOVES!!!!!!!
And my friend Alba sent me this adorable fleece poncho from Colombia, along with some soft fuzzy socks for me and coffee for Dave. She thought of the whole family, I’m impressed!
And last, but totally not least, is this ADORABLE sock-cat from Ali. 1) Whoever thought to make a sock-monkey in cat form was SMRT. 2) I think someone’s going to have to start giving me synonyms for “adorable” at some point in the near future.
Thank you all!!!!
Saturday night we celebrated Gene’s 80th birthday and the kitties 9th birthdays. Dave fixed his famous 5 layer lasagne. It’s 4″ deep! I help by making the sauce but he makes and assembles the rest. Dave also made a carrot cake in his new bundt pan. I made a chopped salad and some very tasty garlic bread.
We made Gene a jazz mix cd (what do you get someone who’s 80?!) and mom got some fun toys for the cats. 
I finally got my ring! I am so flippin’ excited! You may have read my earlier post about the stone and the ring. Well, it took several tries to find the right setting, but we finally figured it out.
Alba, thank you, thank you, thank you!
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