On this fine Tuesday morning

Today Butch is happy because:

We found out that our future kid is most likely a boy (we won't know for sure until the big 20-week ultrasound but at 16 weeks the doctor says he's pretty sure it's a boy in there, so we're going with it.)

He got to eat Nielsen's frozen custard at 11 in the morning, which is what happens when your wife's doctor's office is conveniently located down the street.

I'm happy because:

Baby looks healthy and has flailing little arms and hands that were waving at us during the ultrasound, which melted my heart a bit. Also, although I know most women wouldn't be, I'm pretty jazzed at the prospect of having a boy. The thought of bows and ribbons and the color pink and all that stuff scares me a bit.

My doctor told me that I am good to go skiing during this pregnancy, and that I can go ahead and eat sushi if I feel like it. I almost kissed him on the mouth.

Oh, and I got to indulge in some mid-morning Nielsen's as well.

After all, that baby weight isn't going to gain itself.

Our first Christmas card (be sure to read the fine print)

Sorry this pic is super blurry. It's actually just a screenshot I stole from the card company's website.

And while we're talking apologies, please don't be offended if you didn't get one of these in the mail. I normally don't even send out Christmas cards since the process ranks a little too high on the holiday hassle meter for me, but this year I found a sweet deal online through a company that mails the cards out for you so I decided to jump on it. The catch was that the promo code expired the day after I found it so I had to frantically scrape together addresses and I'm sure plenty of names got lost in the shuffle. Either that or I just forgot due to pregnancy brain. Is it too early to use that excuse? I hope not cause it's pretty much my trump card these days.  

And the tradition continues

One chilly night in 2008 we decided to go see the Christmas lights at Hogle Zoo with our (relatively) new friends Megan and Travis. The night was promising at first, as the lights were pretty awesome and the weather was appropriately wintery, but somewhere near the reptile house Megan got separated from the group, and due to some cell phone malfunctions it took us a good 45 minutes to find her again, which left poor Megs a bit traumatized.

 But out of that unfortunate debacle was born a lovely Christmas tradition. Each year us and the Morrisons (and sometimes invited guests) hit up one of the Christmas sights around the valley that we have never been to before. In 2009 we went to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point, which was totally lame except for the fact that Megan and I were able to serenade the boys with rousing renditions of "I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas" since we viewed the lights from the comfort of the car. I think they were ready to bludgeon us by the end of the night. Last year we were joined by Morgan and Hansol and braved the crowds at the Festival of Trees, which was cool but oh so packed with people.

This year we decided to keep things more low key, which ended up being a great idea since Trav hurt his back the day before and was all kinds of doped up on muscle relaxers. Our destination of choice was the Winder Dairy Country Store, which is apparently a sort of Christmas Mecca around these parts since they serve up delicious scones during the holiday season and all the houses leading up to the store are decked out with some amazing lights. Here are a few pics of the night, courtesy of Megan's iphone:

Did you know that Mike and I are really good at looking awkward in pictures? Some might say it's a skill, but i think it's more like a gift from God or something. 

Megan and Trav do a much better job, even with Red being kind of out of it from his meds:

Hot scones with honey butter. Delish:

We ended the night by watching The Family Stone while Megan and I finished up our holiday wreaths. It was a great start to the Christmas season and a tradition that I hope continues for years to come.