Christmas craziness (Part I)

Whew! I am finally feeling back to normal. Today was the first day that I have been able to get up at a normal time (7ish) and not totally crash and burn sometime in the late morning or early afternoon. Not to mention, the past few days I've been averaging around 22,000 steps per day (over 10 miles) which took some adjusting back to as well. BK pulled an all-nighter at work last night, so who knows what his sleep will be like now.

Now, on to the fun stuff…our Christmas trip to the US! BK went early for work and was there for three weeks and I joined him one week later for two weeks of festivities. Our schedule was packed full, and, as it should be, was full of family, family, family. In August I made the mistake of over-scheduling us with friends in Fort Worth, leaving my family no time; this time we pretty much just saw family the entire time. I've already told BK that when Baby K arrives and we venture back to the US for the first time with her, I'm going to have to stay for at least three weeks. There's just no other way to see everyone and have quality time together in two weeks. It's a stretch now- I can't imagine adding a baby into that, who at that time, no one but the parents will have met.

So here it goes…highlights from the trip!

This is what ensues when BK is left to his own devices for too long without me there to supervise, especially when it involves one Bobby P. This is one of the tamest pictures they sent me. Bobby P's wife (NP) is also pregnant, about two weeks behind us, and I let the party boys know that after the babies get here they would be on dad duty and NP and I would be out enjoying ourselves like they do!

One of the many texts that I received letting me know I was missed

A tamer BK joined my family for the dedication of Abbs and LJ at church the Sunday before I arrived.

The H family

When true order was restored, and I got into town (just kidding…sort of) we hit the ground running with KRM's 50th birthday that night. Somehow I have no pics of dinner or the fam visiting Sundance Square. I blame it on the fact that BK and I "share" his iPhone when we're both in the US and I don't always have it at my fingertips.

I initially was relieved that Thursday had arrived, as I had no plans, but somehow filled my day up quite well. The morning was consumed by baking for BK's Fort Worth team and hanging out with my sisters as they got ready for the baby shower coming on Saturday. I know you've seen them before, but just to reemphasize how good they are, here's another pic of what I made.

Cream cheese filled snicker doodles

Friday was a big day- Abbs' friend birthday at Van Grow Studios, Kilgore High School (BK's alma mater) played in the football state championships, and we had the M extended family Christmas.

My sister asked if I could help her out by making rice crispy treat "paint brush" party favors for Abbs' party. Of course, as one who bakes often, I thought no big deal. They were a complete pain- don't do it if someone asks. There's really not even any real baking involved. I'd do it again for them, but it was quite the process Thursday night and Friday morning. I told CMH that I hoped those two-year-olds enjoyed the crap out of these rice crispy treats!

The "paint" drying on rice crispies

Finished product

The birthday girl painting

We went to the football game at Cowboys stadium. Kilgore lost, so nothing exciting to report there, outside of some outstanding people watching. That night my dad's family came to our house for our yearly dinner and gift exchange.

Saturday was also a big day- Baby K's baby shower! The theme was Traveling Tot, which was really cute, and I was very thankful to have many family members and friends come to celebrate our upcoming addition. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures as of yet. I did take my camera, but was too busy socializing and being the center of attention to take any of my own. More to report on that later.

It also happened to be this guy's (LJ) first birthday that day. Yes, he and Abbs are approximately 360 days apart from one another.

The next morning we lit the advent candle with my mom.

Then celebrated both Abbs and LJ's birthdays at home.

In the meantime, BK and I started celebrating our own Christmas together by starting to open presents. TR said that we seem to think that we celebrate Hanukah, as we open presents from one another for about five days before Christmas actually gets here. Here was one of BK's to me- he wraps his own and must have liked this one, as he took this picture of it before I opened it.

I had lunch with some great friends on Monday, and did some sewing with my mom on Baby K's bedding. When BK and I get done with her room I'll post pics of the bedding- it's black, cream and purple (surprise, surprise).

That brought us to Christmas Eve on Tuesday, when we celebrate Christmas with my family. Here's a good one of mom and the babies before Christmas lunch.

Wow! That's only the first week we were there. As this is starting to feel like my longest blog post ever, I'm going to break this one up and tell you about our second week in the next post.

Now you can see how our holidays were quite the whirlwind, but I wouldn't have done it any differently and loved every minute of it, as I hope you did with yours as well!

Four days back and still fighting jet lag!

Ugh…jet lag is killing me this time around, so I need to warn you this may be a completely random blog post. I need to post about our Christmas trip to the US, as tons of stuff happened while we were there, but I'm just tired and haven't quite put it together yet.

I sort of expected it, as it has gotten harder to adjust back to this timezone as pregnancy progresses, but I was really excited when our first day back (Friday) passed and I wasn't acting completely crazy.

Friday was spent with BK at work and me unpacking the eight suitcases we brought back with us. Yikes! Eight suitcases! I think I can effectively say that our days of traveling light might be over. As a disclaimer, we did have a baby shower and had a ton of stuff to bring back this time.

Tanner is also pretty sure that everything we brought back is for him.

BK and I were surprisingly productive this weekend, despite being a bit off from traveling. Saturday we rented a Mobility car again and ventured out to Ikea. It was a madhouse, but we braved the crowds and got what we needed for the wardrobe conversion in Baby K's room and ordered the crib. The wardrobe used to have shoe racks in it with storage on the side that is covered. We put in drawers and shelves that will serve as a changing table and put some additional drawers on the skinny side. Now comes my part- putting everything that we brought back from the US.

Regarding jet lag, I should have knocked on wood or something because today was rough. It's pretty much guaranteed that  I will wake up around 2:30am and not be able to go back to sleep until the time when I'm supposed to be waking up. This morning it was 3:30am, and I wasn't able to go back to sleep until around 9am- not good. And yes, I totally have a fear of Baby K not sleeping and me being a zombie.

On a happier note, right before I left to come to the US I made Cream Cheese-Filled Snicker Doodles for the neighbors and included one of our Christmas cards. I'm happy to report back that the neighbors seemed to really appreciate them. We had a bottle of wine from one and a baby gift from another waiting for us when we got back, and last night one stopped by with baked goods and tonight a different one came by to introduce herself and say thanks. Pretty cool! My cookies are bringing people together :)

I also embarked on a new dish for dinner tonight- Mini Chicken Pot Pies. I've been craving cozy food since we got back and this sounded good tonight. And since BK's working late, this was a good night to try something new. They turned out well, and I would definitely recommend this recipe. I made Cream of Mushroom Condensed Soup for the recipe and instead of biscuits used dough that you roll out, which also worked really well. Yum! They were fairly quick and make for an easy dinner.

That's all for tonight. Now I just need to decide if I have the energy to do anything else productive. Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight and be back tomorrow with more.

Happy 2014!

Happy 2014! I'm a couple of days late on this post, but the first was spent packing a crazy amount of stuff to bring back to Switzerland, the second was spent traveling and now we're at the end of the third day, which has been a hard recovery day from all the traveling. Such is the life of living abroad…

2014 promises to be an exciting year for BK and I, as we welcome Baby K sometime this spring. Even though we have this life-changer approaching quickly, BK and I still have some other resolutions and goals for the year. I never really know how I feel about New Year's Resolutions. Part of me thinks that if you have a goal or want to change something, you should just do it. But on the other hand, the beginning of a new year obviously gives you a clean slate to start something new. I think it also provides a good time to reflect on where you are and what you want to do. About this time last year, BK and I started talking about the possibility of having a family together and look where we are now :)

So, here we go…my New Year's Resolutions for 2014!
~ Expand our network in Basel (i.e. make more friends)
~ Improve my German
~ Volunteer my time in Basel somehow
~ Continue a healthy and active lifestyle
~ Continue traveling and exploring new places

I would add "Become a Mom" to this list, but it seems kind of obvious to me. The other questionable one I have is to complete the Basel half-marathon. I really want to do this before we leave Basel. It's held at the end of September, but as I've never done the whole giving birth thing, I'm just not sure how feasible this goal is in regard to recovery time and being a new mom. We'll see- it's on the radar and will be done if possible. Maybe I'll do one in Dallas in December if that one doesn't work out.

BK has resolutions of his own, but you can ask him about those if you're curious. I'll be back tomorrow with an update on our Christmas vacation. To say it was busy would be an serious understatement!