A New Nephew and Cousin!

We're an uncle and aunt again, and Clara has a new cousin! John's sister Catherine and her husband Glenn had a baby boy early, early this morning. Still waiting to hear what they've decided on for a name. He was 9 lbs. 2.5 oz. Sounds like he came pretty fast once he decided it was time. Congratulations, you guys! Can't wait to meet him.

Well, Glenn and Catherine's news have made us that much more excited to find out what we're having. It sure is different this time around not knowing the gender of the baby! I had an appointment with the obstetrician this morning, and everything seems great. I can't believe I'm 30 weeks already. My goodness, this baby could be here in less than 10 weeks! I don't really want to think about it too much right now in the midst of Christmas busyness!

Things around here have been quite busy lately. Some days I feel like I'm drowning in Christmas preparations...both at church and at home. John is having a party with the youth group tonight. Clara and Yawsha and I are enjoying a quiet evening at home, basking in the glow of Christmas lights, wrapping Christmas presents, and trying to finish up my Christmas baking.

On top of all the Christmas stuff happening I decided to start a new job the end of November. I started my own Princess House business. Yes, I'm in sales now...I still can't picture that, but it's been really fun so far. Princess House is a company that's been around for years. They started out specializing in decorative crystal, but they have phased out of that and into a wide range of products like dinnerware, stoneware, stainless steel cookware, decorative tabletop accessories, rattan products, and the list goes on. It's gorgeous stuff!! I did 5 in-home shows within my first week and a half, which meant I was busy a lot of evenings. It was tiring, but it was a great start for me. I reached the goal I had set for myself as far as my level of sales, and made some extra money for Christmas. I'm planning to do a few shows in January and then close up shop for awhile after the baby is born. The nice thing about it is that I can pick it back up again when I feel up to it and when the baby is old enough to be left with Daddy and a bottle for the evening. It's nice to get out with ladies and have something that's just for me! It's also nice to have a personal challenge and feel productive both in and outside the home.

We had quite the winter storm here this week. Actually we've had two big storms within the last week. Last Saturday we had to miss our church's Christmas Tea. It was a blizzard and just wasn't worth the risk of getting on the road. Then overnight on Monday another huge storm hit and everything was shut down on Tuesday. We were without power from 9am until about 5:30pm that day. Needless to say the house got a little chilly! Thankfully the power came back on in time to cook supper and heat the house up for sleeping that night. There's still a couple of thousand homes on the Island without power though. I feel for those poor people! Hopefully they have family or friends they can stay with. The snow sure has made everything look beautiful though! It really feels like Christmas now!

Well, I better sign off. Sorry that there's no pictures today. I've been very neglectful with picture taking lately.