...but the greatest of all these is love...: Happy Holidays

So December flew by, including the Christmas season. I have been extremely busy at work with end of year tax projections for our clients, which has not left a ton of time for catching up with family and friends...I apologize for that. Fortunately, the craziest time of year at the firm has passed with December. Jon finished up his semester of graduate school about the second week of December, so he has been enjoying getting back in the kitchen letting the food "inspire" him as he likes to say, as well as catching up on playing some video games and reading books about becoming a dad. We continue to square dance on Friday nights with the Bren-Don Squares square dance club in Geneva, FL, which is still an absolute blast. Jon is also now apprenticing under Don Whitaker trying to learn how to be a square dance caller himself. He has had two very successful singing calls since he first started trying to learn.

Our baby has now celebrated its first Christmas and New Years (in utero at least) with us. Jon and I had a wonderful Christmas weekend as we went to visit Jon's mother Jodi in Fort Pierce on Saturday, with his sister Jennifer. To our surprise Jon's Aunt Cathy and cousin Jessica showed up for a visit as well. We had a wonderful time of fellowship with some of Jon's family and had safe travels to and from Fort Pierce. Sunday was spent going to church for a wonderful time of worship and praise with our church family on the most special of days! I can't remember the last time Christmas fell on a Sunday, but I was so pleased that we were able to attend a service at our church on Christmas morning. After church Jon and I quickly picked up and cleaned a few last minute things prior to Jon's siblings arriving for our Christmas celebration. Jason, Jessica, and Jennifer all came over to our house on Christmas for a wonderful Christmas celebration. Jason and Jon made a wonderful Christmas dinner that took approximately four and a half hours to complete, and Jennifer giving us a fantastic Christmas present, cleaned up the kitchen that was left in a disaster after they were done cooking. (In case you don't know, Jon and Jason both are known to make one heck of a mess in the kitchen when making their delicious creations). We had a fabulous time of fellowship with our generation of Jon's family on Christmas day.
On top of all of that, Jason and Jessica blew us away with all of the baby gifts that they brought us...we officially have our first baby things! Everything is just so adorable and cute; Jon and I are just so thankful for the thoughtfulness and excitement that Jason and Jessica have shown us. We know that our little baby is so incredibly blessed to have such amazing aunts and uncles excitedly anticipating his/her arrival. We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas weekend and we are so thankful for our wonderful family and friends. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and hope that your New Year is better than any other you've ever had.

As many of you know, we let the secret out of the bag on December 9th that we were expecting our first child. I am now almost 16 weeks along in my pregnancy, with a very small bump starting to make itself known to the world. I am now having to start being strategic in my clothing choices, as my clothes aren't necessarily fitting as well as I would like them to anymore. I have officially purchased bella bands (one black and one white) in an effort to keep wearing some of my favorite pants. Jon and I have another doctor's appointment on January 5th; however, we will not find out what the sex of the baby is until the end of January or beginning of February. Everything is going well in my pregnancy...I have been extremely blessed in that I have not really had any significant nausea since about week six or seven, and no vomiting at all (sorry if that was too much information for some of you). My energy is returning, which is absolutely wonderful as well.

Here is a picture of the miniature baby bump from week 14.