Early Christmas celebration

This past Thursday, John and I celebrated our 4th anniversary! It's been a wonderful 4 years, and we look forward to many decades together. We had a fun celebration. I took Grace to my mom at a half-way point, so she could keep her for 2 nights. John took me to a wonderful Italian restaurant that we'd seen in a neighboring town a few months ago. It was a nice, quiet, romantic restaurant. Afterwards, we went to Starbucks and just talked for probably an hour.  It was a really nice date. Friday night was full with 4 basketball games at the school, so we went to all of them. John had to work through most of them, so I volunteered to work the concession stand for the final game. I actually enjoyed it, but it was pretty slow when I was in there, so maybe that's why!

Saturday, John and I headed to my parents' house for my side of the family's Christmas celebration. We stopped at the mall so we could buy pajamas for each other for Christmas Eve. (We're starting a new tradition this year of new PJs on Christmas Eve.) After a few hours of shopping, we had what we needed, so we headed on to mom and dad's. We were so eager to see Grace! As much as I really enjoyed my break from her, I was ready to have my baby girl back! I missed her so much! (Both of us did.) I remember before I was a parent, I would hear moms talk about how much they loved getting away for a weekend, especially for a retreat, but then by the end they were so eager to get their kids back, and I didn't understand it. It's so hard to be away. This is such a fun age for Grace. She's changing so much every day. She's constantly adding new words to her vocabulary. This week, we've been trying to teach her about baby Jesus in the manger, and now when we ask her, "Where's baby Jesus?", she runs to the tree and points! (Our nativity is under the tree.) It's so cute!

Back to our Christmas celebration... It was a lot of fun. It only took about 1 present for Grace to get the hang of tearing the paper off her presents. It was so fun to watch her get so excited about everything. Grace got an adorable rocking horse that even sings and neighs! She was scared at first, but I think it was from our reactions to how cute it was. Now she loves it! She played on it all morning today before we left for church. She's been playing with all her toys and reading her new books. I am also super super excited about my new stand mixer! I've been wanting one for a while. It's really hard to do cake stuff with a hand-held mixer, and now I don't have to anymore! This mixer should last me a while. I can't wait to make my next cake!!