Speaking of Christmas…

Traditionally in our home we celebrate 2 Christmas days. The 24th, Christmas eve, where I cook and we as a family unit sit around the table, stuff our faces, drink wine, play cards and make with the merry. The 25th we go off to our respective extended families and have Christmas number 2.

I plan every detail of the Christmas number 1, from colour co-ordination to a menu. I love spending 2 or 3 days in the kitchen preparing the food, tweaking the menu, drinking wine and listening to Christmas songs. This year it’s going to be a little different, at least for me. For starters, there will be no wine for me, iced green tea will suffice. Secondly, we have no dining room this year, a bit difficult to do the whole buffet; starters, 2 roasts, veg, rice, potatoes, pudding, mince pies, etc. Thirdly, I am anticipating that I will be nearing the size of a house, what with me being 8 months pregnant at around about that time, which, and again I am presuming, will mean manoeuvring around my teeny tiny kitchen will be a little on the difficult side, not to mention the swelling feet and sudden inability to deal with the heat.

So, I’ve had to adapt my plans just a little. Firstly, I am going to downsize the meal quite considerably, and although we will still be having 3 courses, I was thinking of doing it a little more French cuisine style…. You know the pretty food that looks like it wouldn’t satisfy a supermodel after starving themselves for 10 days. I figure that 3 courses of pretty, tiny portions on a plate and a large supply of cheese, crackers and Christmas mince pies should keep the rabid wolves at bay. Next I plan on doing the feeding outside, Port Elizabeth Christmas weather permitting. If the wind is howling though, I don’t know what we’ll do. I guess we’ll have to move the lounge around and try to fit the table and chairs inside. And last, I plan on taking from the 22nd off of work so that I have ample time to prepare the food, which will mean that I will only really have to worry about reheating the roasts and putting the veg on, on the actual day.
You see, I told you… serious OCD, but Christmas comes around once a year, it is such a special holiday and an amazing time to spend with the people you love and who love you, why not strive to make it perfect.

Holiday OCD

For those of you who know me, I suffer from a slight (okay severe) case of OCD, when it comes to certain things. Pens and pencils for one…. Don’t touch them, they’re mine, if you use my pens they are contaminated and somehow never write the same again. Colours are also a bit of an obsession. I don’t like anything to clash with my “chi” e.g. there is a house not so far from ours that is painted pumpkin yellow, with forrest green finishes. Not cool, in fact this particular house hurts my eyes and makes my head very noisy.

Christmas brings out the worst of my OCD tendencies. Firstly because I am so absolutely over the top Christmassy, that I want to put my tree up at the end of October. Secondly, and this ties in with my colour problems, my tree has to be co-ordinated. Two toned with colours that go well with the green of the tree. Even my wrapping has to match. So the question this year was what colour to go with. The year before last was red and gold, last year silver and electric blue and this year???? I was considering a pink and silver theme, because it will probably be the last time in a loooooooong time I’ll be able to have pink in my home, but pink and green, mmm, maybe not! So the question was, a new white Christmas tree, or change my theme. Anyway, I decided on the colours, I obtained the correct colour paper and now it’s just the fight with my Grinch. He maintains that it’s still far too early to be putting up our tree. I on the other hand have a very devious plan, I am going to do my Christmas shopping early this year. By the time all the packets of gifts have been left strewn about the house, he will beg me to put the tree up and wrap the gifts so that he has some semblance of order in his life, (he’s a neat freak).
I’ll have it up soon, I’ll take a photo and post it in all its Christmassy glory.

A Bit of Bragging

I have borrowed this Disclaimer from Wendi's blog because I couldn't have said it better myself, (I hope you don't mind Wendi)***Disclaimer: this is a heavy post for anyone dealing with infertility/pregnancy loss. Please feel free to skip this post and return tomorrow if you are in a difficult spot right now. I'd completely understand. I almost didn't post this at all but decided a disclaimer was a fair compromise. I am sorry for anyone that this post may hurt. My heart knows the pain of those negative results... and remembers the pain.

Well, we had our long awaited 3D scan yesterday. With tons of maneuvering and sleeping with my bum in the air in the hopes that this little monster would turn and face the right way, (he had spent the better part of 3 days kicking me in my spine and trying to get his bum to push through my belly button). Eventually at 3:30 and me pulling rank with my tummy to get to a toilet in the hospital, (I was desperate), we were taken in to have a look.

Problem number 1, Monster was lying in his "hammock" not on his head like a good little boy, problem number 2, our son has his mother's appetite, our 12 week scan confirmed that when he wouldn't stop munching on his umbilical cord, this time apparently his placenta was quite tastey. He kept sticking his tongue out to lick it, as a result his nose and forehead were squashed flat, but admittedly he has got quite the putty nose... too cute!

We learned some things about babies as well. They cry, smile, open their eyes and have temper tantrums whilst in the womb (he did all 3), smiled at his Daddy's voice and threw a crying temper tantrum when the doctor tried to move him away from his tastey treat. 'S' has threatened to move out because little ones feet, hands and mouth wouldn't stop moving, he's terrified we'll have a hyperactive, A.D.D AND talkative child.

After all the antics, I am happy to report that our son is healthy, fat (a whopping 1,179kg's), and happy. He has 10 fingers and 10 toes, a healthy beating heart and what appears to be quite the head of hair. We are very proud of our cute little boy and can't wait to meet him in a little under 12 weeks.

I have attached some pics, a 2D scan showing his head pushed up against my tummy with his tongue sticking out to lick the top of my tum, the pic of him smiling, and another where you can see a little of his hair, and his fingers in his eye as well as 2 pics of my 7 month baby bump, a distant and close up, or as 'S' likes to call it, "his egg".