Merry Christmas + December Happenings

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! 

Ours was great- just busy, busy!  Isn't that part of it!!?  My last day of school was Friday and thank goodness for that!  Our December had been so busy with work and other stuff that I hadn't really finished my shopping yet!  So this week was crazy, to say the least.  And to top it all off, I developed a case of Shingles.  From stress.  Oh yes.  Itchy, red, painful blisters on my back.  Just too much going on for my anxiety and weakened immune system to handle!  I'm feeling better now and will be glad when it's all gone.  

Just to kind of recap, (since I haven't posted since Thanksgiving-geez!) here's what's been going on in my world:

• We celebrated my 32nd birthday!  It was Dec. 3, which was a Friday.  The kids were sweet and so were my coworkers.  We had dinner that night with my parents and the baby loved my choice of southern fried chicken and black truffle mac-n-cheese followed by peanut butter chocolate cake!  He kicked like a soccer player when we got home!
• We watched Auburn win the SEC game!  I'm so proud to be an AU Tiger!  War Eagle! :)
• We had brunch with Z's family for my birthday.  I had fantastic cinnamon apple french toast.  mmmmm....
• I had a 'leave early day' for Christmas shopping.  So did my friend/coworker Stacy.  So we hit up the mall!  And we shut the mall down.  After 2 trips to the car we left when they kicked us out!  haha!  (yet somehow I didn't get everything I needed!)
• Had a fun group of friends over and we walked to a Thai place for yet another bday dinner!  (yes, we apparently love to celebrate with food!).  We had a hard time getting schedules together so, yeah, I celebrated my bday 3 times!  I'm not complaining!
• We drove up to the N. GA mountains for my nephew's baptism.  He did so good and it was such a nice ceremony.  It even snowed during the reception!  perfect!
• Had the 1 hour glucose test. It tasted like non-carbonated Sunkist.  Not too bad.  Felt kinda woozy after.  But I PASSED!  woohoo!
• Went to NYC for the weekend!  Seriously.  The last day of school (17th) I had my class Polar Express Party and that night we were on a flight to NYC.  It was cold but fun (despite the fact that this is about the time I noticed the shingles- I thought it was ringworm or something b/c that's been going around the K-1 classes!).  Anyway, NYC is always so beautiful at Christmastime. It didn't snow, but the lights were still awesome.  We had pictures taken on the highline in Chelsea Saturday afternoon and we saw the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center Saturday night.  Sunday we shopped and flew home that night.  Whew!  Whirlwind weekend for sure!
• We made progress on the nursery!  The room got painted (a light blue/gray) and we got the nursery furniture!!!  I also bought a rug and a bookcase for in there (and some other fun accessories!).  I'll do a separate post on the nursery once I take some pics.  
• Started the 3rd trimester!  We were 28 weeks on Thursday, 23rd.  Baby kicks a lot and sometimes I can even see it and it's amazing.  Z talks to him a lot and baby really responds to him. It cracks me up every time.  I guess he's used to my voice but once he hears his daddy's, he starts moving around!  SO CUTE!  
• Christmas Eve was a busy one.  It all started when I got an email from PB outlet of their annual home sale up to 75% off!  My mom and I left early and hightailed it up there looking for a glider for the nursery.  They didn't have one, but they had lots of other goodies (she got 2 rugs, and I got a bunch of little decorative stuff for the nursery!).  We got back and got ready for family festivities: candlelight service at church, followed by dinner at the Varsity (an Atlanta landmark), and desserts at my in-laws.  It was a really fun night.
• Around midnight Christmas Eve night, I decided I wanted to put the bouncer together.  Z ended up doing it, but I thought it was really fun that we were 'building' something for the baby on Christmas Eve just like I always pictured us doing year after year when we prepare gifts from Santa!  :)
• And yesterday, Christmas Day, it snowed.  Real white, fluffy snowflakes in Ga.  And it was a beautiful sight!