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Another week has gone by, and oh what a week that was! Last Sunday, Dec. 23, was the Christmas Program at church. The Ward Choir sang (under the direction of Noelle), and did very well. I love Christmas music. It’s my favorite. That afternoon we had dinner at Jeff’s grandparents, and we celebrated my birthday (a day early).

On Monday, my real birthday, we did a bunch of Christmas Eve things. The Gálvez’s brought me birthday breakfast. It was yummy. For lunch we went to the Jumbo Buffet. Nothing like Chinese food to get me into the Christmas Spirit! Then we went to the hospital in LaGrange and did some Christmas Caroling. Lastly we went to Jeff’s grandparents house and read the Nativity Story from Luke chapter 2. Rachel had the leading role as baby Jesus. She played the part with a sensitivity and understanding that you don’t always get from a 3 month old. She is very talented!

Next we had a gift exchange game for all the family. We got a chocolate milk maker and a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. (We had kind of a chocolate theme.)

Tuesday was Christmas (of course). We got up late and opened our presents from Santa Claus. He sure is a jolly good fellow! Then we went over to Jeff’s parents’ house where we had a delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, fruit smoothie, and I can’t remember everything else. But it was great and I was very full afterwards. Then we opened presents (again). Finally we just hung out and relaxed for the rest of the day. We had a lot of fun with Jeff’s family.

The rest of the week was spent trying to recover from the previous month. It has all been very nice. Now there’s just one more year before Christmas!

Rachel here. Today was my 3 month old birthday. I learned from my Mom that you can never focus too much on your birthday. “Celebrate while you can,” that’s what she always says. BTW, don’t forget that Monday is her birthday. Happy birthday Mom, Mommy, Mama, take your pick. Back to me again. So like I was saying, today I celebrated 3 months of glorious life. It just so happened that we also had a gift exchange with my aunts, uncles and cousins who won’t be in Louisville for Christmas itself, so I even got to open two presents. Awesome! I got this really cool toy that has little animals pop up when I push buttons and stuff. I haven’t really figured it out yet. It looks kind of complicated, don’t you think? But don’t you worry, I’ll get it.

I also got these two really cool books from my Grandma. They are about this Siamese cat name Skippyjon Jones that likes to imagine that it is a chihuahua. I love it because when my Mom reads to me, she gets to use this really fun Spanish accent. My mom is so totally awesome! Sorry, back to me again. Anyway great books!

So we spent a good part of the day at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. It was a lot of fun. When we got home, Daddy went out to do a little more Christmas shopping, and Mommy took me and Scout for a walk. Now it’s pretty late, and frankly I’m exhausted. I thought I’d catch 40 winks in my bouncy seat.

So that’s about it for me tonight. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Merry Christmas!

Yesterday we went to our church Christmas Party. It was very nice. Rachel got to sit on Santa’s lap. She was a very good girl. She is so unselfish, she didn’t ask for anything! She just sat there sweetly so that Santa would know she was a good girl, then he could give her anything he felt was appropriate.

I know she looks like she’s asleep, but she’s really not. She is just very relaxed.

Jeff got to ask Santa for some presents too, but Santa was mostly focused on Rachel. I mean, how could he help it!

I sang a number in a barbershop quartet. Here it is. If you don’t like it, please don’t tell me. My ego is very fragile. On the other hand, if you do like it, by all means don’t keep that kind of information to yourself. If you don’t like it, feel free to lie and say it was great!

So a big thanks to everybody who made the party happen. Let’s do it again next year! Maybe around Christmas.

I really feel that when I learn something important, it behooves me to share it with everyone else. In my blog surfing, I came across a recipe for peppermint cool whip. Being the aficionado of hot chocolate that I am, I had to try it, and it was great. I mean really great. And easy (otherwise I would never have attempted it). All you do is crush a bunch of candy canes into as fine a powder as you have the patience for, then mix it with cool whip. The directions I saw were 1/2 cup crushed candy canes to 16 oz. of cool whip. I approximated it. I don’t think accuracy really matters in this situation. You may want to try this. It is pretty fantastic.

For anyone living in Louisville, or who will be here this Tuesday (December 11), I am singing in a Christmas Concert. You are all welcome to attend. Here is the important information:

When: December 11, 2007
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Clifton Center for the Arts — 2117 Payne St. — Louisville, KY
Cost: Free (that’s a pretty good price!)
Food afterwards: absolutely
Kids are welcome.

Here is a map to the Clifton Center.

Hi. This is Rachel speaking. (Actually typing.) I have some pretty exciting news. Last night I slept through the night all by myself. It was pretty nice. Very restful. I encourage you all to try it. This is a picture of me all rested up after my nice long night of sleep. See how rested I look?

Today Rachel is officially two and a half months old. Wow! Time flies by. We are doing very well. Rachel is doing great. She is smiling, talking, and generally more interactive. She likes her bouncy seat a lot. It plays music and has lights. It has been good for me too, because I can do things like, oh, I don’t know, take a shower, wash the dishes, do laundry. Good times for one and all.

Last week Scout turned 1 year old. He has been a great big “brother” for Rachel. He treats her so nicely. He gets really upset when she cries. Two or three times when Rachel was crying, he started howling. It was pretty funny, even while a little trying on my nerves.

Merry Christmas to you all.

So a couple of weeks ago I was tagged (Thanks Jen!). I am supposed to list six facts or hobbies or interests of mine. Let’s see what kind of stuff I can make up . . .

1. I played the role of the munchkin farmer in my high school’s production of the Wizard of Oz.
2. I have played the bagpipe in a bagpipe band here in Louisville which gave me the opportunity to play in a group of 10,000 pipers and drummers down the streets of Edinborough.
3. I achieved a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
4. I was in the Hill Cumorah Pageant 13 times between age 0 and age 18.
5. I skipped Kindergarten.
6. I play or have played the following instruments (but none of them very well).

• piano
• ‘cello
• violin
• guitar
• accordion
• bagpipe

Now I get to tag some more people. I’m sorry if this is the 17th time you’ve been tagged, but that is the price you pay for me knowing your blog location. I tag Andrea Gosnell, Malauna Gibby, Meredyth Harrison, Holly Casos and Summer Perrero.

Today Rachel had her 2 month old doctor’s appointment. Can you say “Traumatic?” Poor thing, she had 4 shots. Count them, 4 — 1, 2, 3, 4. I’m okay now, though.

It has been quite a while since I have last posted. I have since then been “tagged.” I’m not going to do that today, but don’t you fret, all too soon you will know all of my secrets. I’ll get to it soon.

So anyway, back to Rachel’s appointment, she was weighed and measured and found quite satisfactory. She weighs 14 lbs and 11 oz. (That is > 97th percentile). She is 24 1/2 inches long. (Also > 97th percentile). She’s never met a bottle of enfamil lipil she didn’t like. I mean, she loves it. She eats (or rather drinks) it all the time. She is robust and healthy, and growing like a weed.

Today I went to a yoga class for the first time. I took Rachel, so I really only got in about 30 minutes of uninterrupted exercise. For the last 30 minutes I tried to feed Rachel and juggle her while I did the warrior pose (or whatever it was). The instructor warned me that my wrists would hurt afterwards. You know, she was right. Still, I think I’ll keep it up. Rachel will grow into it, and in the meantime I can ease into it myself.

This afternoon I gave Scout a bath. I can’t say he loves bath-time, but he is fairly cooperative. What was really entertaining was watching him dry himself off afterwards. He definitely understands the purpose of a towel. All I had to do was toss it on the floor and he rolled and rolled and rolled and twisted and turned on that towel.

Then I tried to brush him. He is less cooperative about brushing. I had to cut a few clumps of knotted up hair on his ears. That is the only place the groomer leaves his hair long. I suppose it is because he doesn’t hold his head still very well, even when I am holding a sharp object next to his head (namely scissors).

Jeff has been fighting a cold for the past week and a half. Nothing life-threatening, just keeping him feeling bad. Today he finally went to the doctor. He decided to stay home for the rest of the day. He laid down on our (extremely comfortable) sofa in the basement with Rachel and took a nap. Is that not the sweetest thing you ever saw?

On Sunday I took a couple of pictures of Rachel in a beautiful dress that she got from Heather Toombs and Holly Casos. I don’t like to brag about my kid, but she was the cutest thing at church! In one of the pictures I managed to get a smile, but of course the picture was blurry. Too bad! I’m going to post it anyway.

Okay, one last picture of my little sweetie. I couldn’t resist.