Christmas traditions...gotta love 'em!

In reference to the last post, I thought I'd give you a mini-tour of the slightly scarey, 30 year old Christmas decorations at Grandma Weezy's house...

cookies and egg nog

Oooooh, I love the holidays! I love that my Mother In Law plays round-the-clock Christmas music on the radio, that there are a million Christmas decorations all over the house...even the scarey ones at least have a cool story (they are 30 years old, what Christmas dolls wouldn't have chunks of hair falling out at that age?). I love that Mieke tours the decked out tree every day with Grandma and Grandpa. I love that Jack-the-dog (as opposed to Jack-the-baby) even gets new Christmas toy bears to play with these days. The tree swells with presents and the Gingerbread tea has become a regular brew. These are the days that I love. Making memories with family, new family and old. Making new traditions with Marc and Mieke. I'm cherishing these days. And thanks to my daughter, picking out gifts for Marc has become much easier this year!

...Mmmmm, I don't know if Dad will like that one...


Let me see that other one again...


Oooo! Definitely not that one!

Yea!

Finally, my blog seems to be functioning normally again! And that is not the only good news in the Hall family today...I'm pretty sure I'm safe to write this here because likely all family members will hear before they read this...

MY BROTHER AND SISTER-IN-LAW ARE PREGNANT!!!!! Yes, this is their first baby and they've successfully been doing Fertility Awareness as a birth control method for a year now, but as many of us know ;) it doesn't work if you cheat! But they are happy. Ethan will be graduating from Notre Dame's Grad School program in May and hopefully have a job lined up by then. So, it seems babies are popping up everywhere...Marc's brother, Tim, is having another boy and his cousin, Debbie, is having a boy soon, too. It's such an exciting time in life!

And, I'm almost afraid to say this, but after having Mieke I've realized that I absolutely adore being a mother. That's not the scarey part...here it is: I want more babies. I mean, I would like to get back in shape again before the next pregnancy. And, yes, I know it's good to have about 2 years between babies, but I simply love having another little person in our family and I can't wait to see what the rest of them will be like.

Ok. There's a little something else. I'm hesitant to write this because we've only just begun this journey of building a family, but I've been thinking a lot about the Gents and the Brodeurs. For those of you who don't know these amazing families, they are huge, ranging from something like 7-11 kids. The kids adore their parents as well as each other and they are such godly people. I just love watching them in action. Oh, I could write an entire blog about these families, but I won't now. You know what's funny, we're watching the movie 'Cheaper by the Dozen' on TV. Ironic. Oh well, God knows how many kids we'll have.

We miss you all, Land-ites!


but, we're all geared up for Chicago

a challenge to all computer teckies:

we're experiencing technical difficulties with Megan's blog.

here's the sitch:

megan tried to switch over to the new "google" account on blogger. but she doesn't have gmail, so she tried to use my gmail address. and now it has our two blogger pages confused. that's pretty tolerable, but I think it has caused a bigger problem:

now she can get to her login page, and it looks new and everything. she can edit her blog and add new posts, but after every edit, when you click on "view blog", it reverts to her old blog. and if you click on her profile picture on the old blog, it comes up to MY log in page.

so for now, to view Megan's new blog, we have to link from someone else's page.

anyone got any ideas? (oh, i don't know,...hmmm.... possibly.... NATHAN????)


this dyslexic child is waiting...

Megan's new post

we're suffering technical difficulties, so i as the husband am trying to sort it out.
here's a picture to go along with this post:

My husband went to work today for the first time since our wedding...

and I'm getting a taste of what life will be like soon...

Ok, so Marc works. But we definitely have a unique lifestyle-living and working in community together. I love it. We've barely spent a day apart for the first 9 months of marriage. We see each other day and night. I think it's a good thing for a couple who only "dated" for 2 weeks and were engaged for 2 months. We're still dating each other, really.

But today Marc went to work for our friend, Scott, who's doing a roofing job about 45 miles from here. Sure, we're still on vacation, but why not try to make a buck or two (or maybe 50) when the opportunity arises? So this morning Marc packed up a lunch and took off for the worksite while I remained in Tahoe, lounging in the sun with the fam.

I think there's something I've been missing in the experience of being a stay-at-home wife and mom and I just realized that I've been looking forward to this for a long time, like, all my life. Don't get me wrong, i have absolutely loved my roles at Prodigal Project and Emmaus Ministries. They've been very fulfilling and I'm so thankful that God has used me to show His love to the poor and outcasts of society. But now that I'm on the brink of motherhood, I'm ready to jump into this entirely new role.

I'm sure some of you moms out there will warn me that it's not all I'm imagining it to be, but I can't wait to have our own home to cook in, clean, and organize. I can't wait to have my very own kitchen to prepare healthy, delicious meals for my family. I can't wait to decorate, to get together with my old girlfriends from Chicago who've just had their first babies, and to have my parents over for dinner.

I don't want to start living a conventional suburban life, untouched by poverty, suffering, and the gritty life of the city. I still want to choose to love those who are hard to love and to lay my life down in ways that are uncomfortable. But I am confident that our Dad has a nitch for us back in Chicago, even if we don't know what it is yet. I'm excited and really ready for this adventure in motherhood to begin...in more ways than one!

Crawdaddy fishin'

Last night's dinner catches tonight's dinner. Who knew Crawdad's liked chicken and salami? I guess anyone who's fished for them...



Sandwiched between my beautiful twin sisters-in-law (and looking like a whale next to them...gotta love the last weeks of pregnancy!)

Would you push your mother into Lake Tahoe for $50?

Let me set the scene...

Our nephew Jackson is enjoying a peaceful boatride with his daddy, so Louise decides to wade in for the perfect photo. Meanwhile, the rest of the family is lounging on the beach when Steve offers $50 to anyone who will go push Louise into the lake. Stacey ups the ante by asking $100 when Marc decides $50 is enough for him. He darts into the lake to sneak up on his poor unsuspecting mother. One minute she's getting this shot...


and the next moment Marc's snatching her camera and dunking her...


Mom Brackley, beware. I did not know Marc had it in him...Then again, I can't see him turning on his mother-in-law for $50. Too big a risk.

$100...maybe.

No time for creativity...

but at least I'll write a quick update on our first week of vacation. My mom was just here for a week, which was spectacular. We did a whirlwind tour of the Bay Area including staying at the lovely Chaminade Hotel in Santa Cruz, Steve and Louise's house, the Holiday Inn at Half Moon Bay, and the Hilton at Oakland Airport. (Thanks for making it all possible, Priceline.com!) We did a lot of relaxing things like picnic at the beach, sit and watch surfers, putz around seaside towns, and shop (of course).

Last weekend my incredible Mother-in-law and Aunt-in-law(?) threw me the biggest and nicest shower I've ever attended. There were about 27 guests (half of whom I met that day) and they literally showered us with gifts! After a few returns and exchanges we now have every imaginable item necessary for bringing a baby into this world (including about 300 diapers). Our munchie has the most extensive wardrobe of any infant I know and WILL be cute even if she is one of those alien-like newborns, thanks to baby Gap's adorable jeans.

We've done lots of running around, but i'm happy to announce that we are officially ready for the birth of our baby (6 more weeks and counting). Marc even installed the car seat tonight.

So, the Subaru is packed up and ready for the second half of our vacation adventure: the Hall family vacation in Tahoe. Departure is at 12:00 noon tomorrow and we are ready to roll. I'll wrap it up for now. It's definitely time for some R&R at the end of this errand-filled day...

8 months & still smiling