Aurelia's first Christmas

Christmas Day has come and gone, and minus the crazy sickness I had and Aurelia's croup, I think it went pretty well! The great thing is that Aurelia is probably the most down to earth baby, even when she is sick, which made for easy traveling and such. At first, I felt like I shouldn't have been taking her outside when she was sick, but upon investigating croup, I found that the cold air probably helped her with the inflammation in her little lungs. So I didn't feel as bad :)

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas evening with the Hill family at the cottage this year. It was a good time just relaxing, eating, and catching up. This year we included Mom and Dad in the name draw pot, so money spent was less for everybody. I received a great gift from my new brother in law Alex: some slippers that I wanted and a beginner's painting set that includes some brushes, paint, and five canvases.... we'll see how that goes :P



Christmas Day we drove home for church, which was nice. After church, we came home and took a nap, which was much needed, since I was feeling not so great. (Turns out I had a bug that was going around... never would have guessed that heartburn/indigestion would be caused by a bug... but I am glad it was nothing more than that. The first 4 days of it weren't that bad, but the last 2 were pretty painful.) It was a lot of fun celebrating Christmas for the first time with Aurelia! She got very spoiled by all of her family members, and we ended up getting her some Mega Bloks. Oh, and her church family spoiled her quite a bit as well :P Here she is in her Christmas Dress :D

The Hill family has a small tradition of making egg rolls on Christmas Day, and since Josh and I were at home, we were going to miss it.... So, even though the cottage was almost two hours away, we decided that we really wanted egg rolls! We made the trip back and were glad that we did -- along with egg rolls, Amy made HotPot for us to enjoy :D Monday was spent in Owosso with more family for Christmas, and then we were finally home!

Today has been one of the first days that we actually had nothing work-related to do, and it has been so wonderful! We spent the day sleeping in, playing with Aurelia, and watching TV/reading. Tomorrow and Thursday will be just as nice, being able to hang out and relax (although I think laundry will have to be done eventually :P) until we head out to Clare either Thursday evening or Friday morning.

I am not really sure if you all wanted to hear what we have done for the last weekend, but thats what you got :) The main news is that I don't have something major going wrong with me and Aurelia is also on the road to health! Josh is doing well... enjoying his time off, and being a great dad and husband!!!

I also chose to start working out again today, because it makes me feel way better when I was this summer. I have a pair of 'goal jeans' and a nice 'goal sweater' hanging on my wall to motivate me when I feel like being lazy or when I feel like eating the whole jar of frosting in our fridge.... which would be a lot of points (I started counting those again too :P) I have been full of excuses about weight and eating and working out, and I am sick of not following through. It is probably the hardest thing I have had to do my entire life, and I have always failed at losing weight. I am ready to actually do it this time... I think that God really used this sickness to help me see that my body is His temple and that I need to be healthy in order to really serve Him and my family in the best way possible.

This is probably long enough. I don't think I have anything to add to it, so Good Night :)