Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone! Today was an exciting news. Lots of things to share with the family and lots of exciting things going on around here. First of all, Alison and I are having a baby. She is due on the 25th of July. She will be 10 weeks tomorrow. We are very excited. We shared the news with our families - which I will tell about later. Below are photos of an ultrasound that Alison had last week.

Ultrasound at 9 weeks and 2 days


Ultrasound at 9 weeks and 2 days (2)

What good news for Christmas right?

Our Christmas and Christmas Eve celebrations went very well. We were home most of the morning on Christmas Eve making jello and funeral potatoes that we had to take to our families houses for dinner. Before we went to our parties we went to visit Grandma Lisonbee at St. Mark's Hospital. She is having some breathing difficulties which they are possibly attributing to pneumonia. It was nice to see her, but we were sad that she will be in the hospital over Christmas.

After visiting Grandma in the hospital we went to Grandma and Grandpa Dickson's for dinner. It was fun to see family. Grandma Dickson gave us a book Granny's Silly Little Garden Songs. It is a collection of garden songs that she wrote as well as garden stories, garden drawings and a CD with grandma singing the garden songs. She put a ton of thought and work into this project. It's fun to have.

After dinner at the Dickson's we went to mom and dad's for dinner (#2). It was our traditional candlelight dinner. It was fun with all of the little girls there. After dinner we played the traditional dice game (roll 7, 11 or doubles - pick a gift). During the first round (pick a gift from the middle) Alison and I did pretty well. During the second round (steal a gift from somebody else - the important round) Alison and I didn't do quite as well. We still ended up with all sorts of good gifts. We got a $10 gift card to Restoration Harware, a small reading light, a box of chocolates, gift certificates to McDonald's, Farr's Ice Cream, Wendy's, an uncut sheet of 16 $1 bills, and some other good stuff. It was a fun game.

After the game the siblings exchanged gifts. Kevin and Alysia drew our names and they gave us an electric fondue set. We are really excited. They also gave us all sorts dips and things to dip.

I had Cheryce and was supposed to give her a gift that Mom had. Mom couldn't find it so hopefully it will turn up soon. Alison gave Rachelle an American Eagle hoodie.

Alison and I slept in Rachelle's old room. We weren't in any rush to get up early so we slept in a little bit. When we did get up we opened our presents from each other. I gave Alison some shoes and she gave me a pair of pants and some velcro shoes. Between the two of us we spent $40 (Our budget is a little tighter with the news mentioned above).

We went to Mom and Dad's sacrament meeting. They had a choir Christmas program. After church we waited until everybody was there and then we gave our gifts to mom and dad. We gave mom a small bottle of ham baby food to announce our pregnancy. Everybody was really excited and we were excited to tell everybody. It's quite a load off of our chests.

Jordan called not long after that. We had told him about Alison's pregnancy last week in an e-mail. It was good to talk to him. He seems to be doing well. Morgan was there to talk with him as well. He talked for about 40 minutes.

Alison and I left for her parents house after that. Alison was really antsy to tell everybody the news, but we had to wait for everyone to get there first. We weren't able to break it until after Christmas dinner. Once we did break the news, everybody was so excited. Her sisters all jumped up to hug her as did her mom. We are excited to be able to talk openly about this now.

Alison's parents gave us some gift cards to the Olive Garden, Applebee's and the movie theater as well as some money (very generous). Korrin had me and gave me a Utah blanket that she sewed an edge onto and a screenprinted t-shirt with The Muss and Brent Mussberger on it. It's pretty funny. Alison got a KU t-shirt from Neal as well as a gift card to Michael's for scrapbook stuff. I gave Abby Sense and Sensibility on DVD and some bath stuff, Alison gave Emily some earrings and a calendar.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. On the drive down to Alison's parents we read Luke 2 and about the wise men in Matthew. I actually quite enjoyed the Sunday Christmas. The last Sunday Christmas was in 1994 so its been a while. We are grateful for everyone's generosity. We can learn a little about that.