Ooh la la!

Do you like our new look? I've had a bunch of fun this afternoon playing around with new formats and color schemes, and I think this pretty green and blue style works best. I happen to love it, and I hope you do too!

At any rate, we had a pretty fun and lowkey weekend. Poor Gez seems to have contracted a stomach bug, and so was off both Thursday and Friday. He wasn't 100% over the weekend either, but gamely went forth on Saturday for some holiday cheer. We were able to get some Christmas shopping under our belts, had a lovely lunch in our old neighborhood, picked out our Christmas tree, and managed to decorate it once we got home. So all in all, not a bad start to the holiday season. The house is decorated, the shopping is done for all the American relatives (and will hopefully be mailed this week!), all we need to do is write out our Christmas cards and do some baking.

I do love the whole Christmas season, but it's difficult not to feel a little homesick around this time of year. And living in the city, with rain falling for the past month, makes me wistful for the woods and snow, and the Christmas tree in my parents' living room. Anyone who has ever gone for a walk in the Vermont woods while snow is falling knows the particular sort of silence that it holds. I miss that. I am so looking forward to next year when we can share that experience with our little boy. In the meantime though, it's also nice to make new traditions with my husband and family over here. Having already spent a Christmas in Wales (how very Dylan Thomas of me), there are now different things I'm looking forward to, like mince pie and Christmas pudding, the Doctor Who Christmas Special, and of course Christmas morning with my husband and in-laws.

However, when it comes to my side of the family I think everyone is already looking forward to next Christmas, as crazy as it sounds! Not only will we be over with the little one, but it will also be my brother and SIL's year to have Christmas in Vermont, which means that we'll all be under one roof. I think my mother will implode with excitement! All 3 grandchildren together! While our baby will only be about 8 1/2 months, my nephews will be 4 and 2 1/2, so they'll be all excited for Santa. It'll be a family Christmas of Griswold-ian proportions. We're all excited. No joke, my brother was talking about it to the girl cutting his hair the other day...