Happy Festivus!

One of my favorite Christmas activities is setting up a gift wrapping station on the dining room table where we can surround ourselves with ribbons, paper, bags, and bows. Yesterday we set up the table and wrapped only about half of our gifts before calling it a day. I guess we'll need another gift wrapping day soon!

Last night, Jenn and Justin came over for a little Christmas get together. Terry did a spectacular job cleaning the house while I was away at work for the morning, and we worked together to get dinner ready. We made citrus chicken, roasted Brussels sprouts, and brown rice with mushrooms and onions. Jenn also made a delicious salad with spinach, gorgonzola cheese, pecans, blueberries, and raspberry vinegar, and Terry sliced up some cheese and salami for appetizers.

Here are some photos of our Christmas decorations, since I neglected to post them earlier.

On our dining room table.

Even the bathroom joined the party!

We all exchanged gifts, and Jenn and Justin gave us a beautiful blanket for our little one and some new coasters, a particularly thoughtful gift since I've been wanting some new ones. We gave them a gluten-free slow cooker cookbook and a canvas print of their choice, which will hopefully come in handy for their recent engagement photos!

This morning Terry and I awoke rested after nine glorious hours of sleep. We took a long walk around our neighborhood and then headed out to a Christmas lunch with some of Terry's family. We had a great time catching up and especially loved hearing all the banter about the baby to be.

This evening turned out to be perfectly mellow. We changed into our pjs (our Christmas jammies?), baked sugar cookies (some of the best I've ever tasted! here's the recipe), stuck with a simple appetizer plate for dinner (apples, blueberries, cucumbers, whole wheat pita, hummus from our farmer's market, salami, sourdough bread, brie, and gouda), and cried while watching Up. Does that movie get you every time, too? It kills me.

Our plans this week:

• Lots of work at the store for me (four days, including Christmas Eve morning)
• Our next doctor appointment is tomorrow! Hopefully we'll get to see our little one or at least hear the heartbeat again.
• A few days of workouts, and I'm hoping to try to run three miles again one day.
• Perhaps a movie or two.
• As much time as possible just enjoying our quality time together. 

And happy Festivus for the rest of us!