Happy New Year!!!

Lots of big exciting changes await in 2006! Only three more months until Claude/Maud makes his/her appearance and we have been getting ready. We went baby shopping this weekend, picking up several things. We got our cool stroller so that we can take lots of walks around the neighborhood. We also picked up a chest of drawers for storage; the unfinished furniture store was having a "No Sales Tax" sale so it was like having a 9% off coupon. We also got some onesies for newborns, a dust ruffle, and more little socks. I am contemplating making some little flannel pants, especially since the fabric store has the flannel on sale right now. We are waiting until Christmas is over to start putting the nursery together.

We had a pretty quiet Christmas, once again forgetting to take any pictures. It was different not to have a bunch of family around this year. But we had a nice breakfast with two of the other women from the church choir, then went down to Olympia for dinner and to spend the night. I made way too many cookies (so they might be appearing in lab this week) and also date bars. I have concluded though that Seattle is too humid to make date bars properly as the powdered sugar kept melting. Maybe I will get to watch Granny make them next year and see what secret tricks I am missing out on.

New Year's was quiet as well, although we did walk down to Kerry Park to see the fireworks shooting off the Space Needle. Today was another day off of work (although we both went into lab for the morning) and another day spent watching football. Both Louisville and Notre Dame lost. Playoffs start next week though and we will be watching the Bengals play and eating the "Who Dey Bar" that my Aunt Dotty gave us for Christmas.

Here is a picture from our baby shower in Maryland where I am opening Bobby's gift of a Ravens sleeper. I said that we would have to get a little Bengals sleeper as well. Especially since the Bengals were playing the Ravens that day and beat them soundly. At least it wasn't a Duke outfit. It was a nice shower though and Dan's family was very generous. Our favorite gift though was from Uncle Chuck, who gave us a little horse stuffed animal. We promptly nicknamed him Charlie Horse. We also recieved lots of Pooh things, which will only aid in converting our small nursery into the Hundred Acre Wood. I will be starting on the drawings I have planned later this week.