Things were CRAZY busy for us Brewers in December! Malia, of course, has been amazing and wonderful as usual. I can't believe she is turning TWO next month! Aaron started a new job with Pension Plan Specialists (a 401K managing company) in down-town Vancouver and LOVES what he does. His new hours are fabulous: 5 days a week, 8am-4pm, and his medical benefits kicked in the day he began! We feel incredibly blessed that he was only out of work for a month and a half... especially in THIS economy. With Aaron out of work for that period of time I had the opportunity to pick up extra hours, which kept family life really busy. I was also extremely busy with our church Christmas party, and was in charge of cooking a Christmas meal for 380 people! Wow... I'm sure glad that is over. I felt like my house went uncleaned for the entire month, we hardly had a home cooked meal, and I felt like I never even had the time to "think" about Christmas shopping or the sort. To top it all off I was having morning (actually all day) sickness bad, and was just so super exhausted. Oh yeah...
We are expecting a new baby July 20th, 2010!
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Despite our busyness we did manage to squeeze in some fun things to celebrate the Christmas Season. (It has been such a treat to have Aaron home on the weekends!) We were able to watch the 1st Presidency Devotional which really kicked off the season and helped us remember the true meaning of Christmas. We made it to the festival of Nativities and even got to watch a Bell Choir for the first time. It was incredible! We also took Malia to a few neighborhoods around town for some nice walks to enjoy the Christmas lights. Every time Malia saw a Santa or Snowman she would yell "HO, HO, HO!" We even went to the zoo lights on one of the coldest days of the month!
We'd been before, but didn't have near the fun as we did this year with Malia. Kids make things so much more exciting don't they? We even got to see the penguins, monkeys, and the elephants!
I hadn't planned on making Christmas goodies this year, but when our Christmas party for church got re-scheduled due to freezing rain, I had a WHOLE day to do whatever I wanted! So, as a family we made some yummy treats for the neighbors. (We couldn't deliver goodies anywhere else because we were iced in!) We ended up having a lot of fudge left-over, which was a TERRIBLE thing because I indulged in some every day! I couldn't figure out why my acid reflux was so bad, and learned from the nurse that one of the worst things you can eat while pregnant and sick is CHOCOLATE! Who would have known!!!!
Here's just a goofy picture of Malia during our cooking extravaganza.
Christmas has always been a very busy, sometimes stressful, holiday for us when it comes to balancing all of our family... my family, Aaron's family, and even our growing family. This year we decided to instill some new traditions and had such a wonderful Christmas! On the Moikeha side of the family we started a new tradition of getting together on the weekend BEFORE Christmas. We had a delicious Christmas dinner (beef tomato) and had so much fun exchanging gifts. Malia loved her new clothes and play-doh set!
This year was the Brewer's turn for Christmas Eve (we alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve), and we got to participate in Aaron's favorite meal of the year... a FISH dinner! It's been a family tradition, one that I used to dread, but actually enjoyed this year! I am not much of a fish person but since marrying Aaron, I have come to appreciate crab, coconut shrimp, and bbq salmon. Yumm!!! The menu for the evening usually includes fish sticks, oysters, shrimp, crab salad, other fishy things, fries, onion rings, and some sort of chicken for me. This year we had some tasty wings. Aaron and I added crab to the menu this year, and Matt and Jeralyn brought home-made sushi that was just delicious! Afterwards we headed over to the Brewer's for a family program, and then exchanged gifts too. I didn't get the chance to take pictures, but Malia LOVES her Dora playhouse from her grandparents.
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Christmas Day was spent with just our family. It was wonderful! Here's Malia coming down the stairs Christmas morning... looking like heck :) Her hair was CRAZY!
She was so excited to find so many presents and surprises from Santa!
It was so much fun watching Malia unwrap her presents. We actually didn't finish until 1pm! Malia just had to play with each gift before moving on to the next one. That was fine... we were in no hurry! Thanks to some excellent black Friday shopping, Malia got a fun kitchen set with food and a shopping cart, a baby doll, a leap frog desk and learning pad, an animal bucket, a Mr. Potato set that creates 5 potato heads, and lots of books and dvd's. I didn't get the chance to take too many pictures... Aaron and I were too intrigued watching her have so much fun. After each gift Malia would jump up and down and say "yay!" Sometimes she would even say the gift before opening it. She'd grab one, say "book", and then open it and say "yay! book!" What a cutie!
After a nice brunch, (though next year we hope to start a tradition of Christmas morning cinnamon rolls), and a nap, we headed out for our annual Christmas movie. This year we saw Sherlock Holmes. It was pretty good! BUT... Did you know that it costs $10 a person for a movie these days! It's no wonder we only make it to a movie on Christmas! Afterwards we had plans for a lovely Christmas dinner: steak, russet potatoes and brown sugared carrots. I would say that this year was a beginning to many more wonderful Christmases. AND... next year we'll have TWO kids to celebrate with!
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