And then there were three.....: Ethan's First Thanksgiving, Christmas decorating, and Godparents!

We have a lot to be thankful for this year - a beautiful healthy baby boy, our own health, family, friends, financial prosperity, etc. I really love Thanksgiving because it allows some time for reflection to take the time and remember how lucky we are to have the life that we do. Through the years Todd and I have been able to take some of those lifetime vacations that you always dream about and then to have our son, the best journey of all, has been such a blessing. We know that we are blessed and I feel that life is so rushed that we don't take the time out to acknowledge it and before you know it another year has gone by. Todd's mom came into town and we went to my Aunt Caren and Uncle Frank's house for the feast. Ethan's feast this year was milk. :) We had a wonderful meal. The part that was really special was the prayer before we ate. I offered to say the prayer and I thanked the Lord for the food on the table, for bringing family together, for Ethan, and for bringing us Ethan's godparents - Caren and Frank! Boy, where they surpised! I totally caught them off guard and that is not an easy task. My aunt catches on very quick and to catch her in surprise was really cool. Todd and I debated on how to ask them and we thought this was a neat way to do it since being godparents is a very spiritual thing and of course the prayer before Thanksgiving is also very spiritual. The emotion on their faces was so special and I can't think of two better people to guide Ethan on his relationship with God. They will grow up knowing their godparents (they live in Dr. Phillips) and they have been so involved in his life - from the moment they found out I was pregnant. Todd and I attend church at Corpus Christi in Celebration and we can't wait for his baptism. We used to attend St. Margaret Mary years ago when we lived on the other side of town. However, since we have moved, it is just too far. We considered going to Holy Family and it just felt like too big of a parish for us. We wanted a little more intimate feeling where we could really get to know people and not feel too lost in the shuffle. At St. Margaret Mary we became very close with our priest and we knew that at Holy Family it was just such a huge parish. Celebration is only about 15 minutes from us. We just go down 535 and hop on I4 and we get off within 2 exits.

Todd's mom helped us out a lot on Thanksgiving week. We were able to go to dinner with a friend on Tuesday night. I got a pedicure on Wednesday (the first pedicure after having a baby is the best pedicure of your life! haha) and Friday she helped us with the Christmas directions. It was nice spending all of that quality time together with her. We got to play Christmas music while putting up the tree and our Christmas village over the fireplace. The day after Thanksgiving for us this year was not shopping but just really enjoying spending the day with our son and getting the house ready. This is our favorite time of year and a much better way to spend the Friday then getting in those crowds at Black Friday. We already have all the mercendise we could ever need and no sale was worth the precious memories we made.