This has been a wonderful christmas so far and we are only thirty-one minutes in! Why am I blogging on Christmas morning? Well, we opened a bottle of wine while we wrapped Miles’ gifts and boy oh boy that needs to wear off before I attempt to go to bed or I’ll be keeping one foot on the floor to stop the room from spinning.

If you live in FW, add this to your must-do christmas eve tradition. Drive down Forest Park Drive off Anthony Blvd. and enjoy the paper luminaries lined up all along the beautiful street. We drove it twice it was so pretty! Someday I will be out of the suburbs and live in an interesting neighborhood. I Can’t wait. : )

Here was our evening:

After Miles’ nap we got him dressed and took him to Andy’s grave with us. A big part of Christmas to me, is about remembering loved ones and giving thanks to them for all the blessings they brought into our lives. So we drove out to the cemetery and left a candle I decorated with words meaningful to me and remembering Andy. We took time to visit a couple other people we know that are there and remember them as well. This was the first time Miles was at the grave and it was really a poignant time to be there with my husband and baby remembering Andy.

Afterwards, we had planned to go to IHOP for dinner. Yes, we are a classy bunch. It’s just that with an 11 month old baby who throws more food than he eats, you really want to be a super baby friendly restaurant. Plus we were craving pancakes and some major comfort food. So we drove out to a new IHOP by our house. It was closed. Crap. Well, I was REALLY craving blueberry syrup on waffles so we drove our north to try that one. CLOSED. So we continued to drive around on Christmas eve looking for a pancake house. Meanwhile, we were having a pretty fierce low blood sugar freak out (aka an LBSFO.) Miles was asleep, which considering it was the usual bewitching hour for us, was pretty amazing. FINALLY, we decided upon Chedder’s being it was open and casual. John was so famished he ate what I called the “Wild Kingdom platter” as it had both chicken AND steak. Miles actually ate an entire dinner off the kid’s menu too. We were like the freakin pigs of Fort Wayne we were so hungry.

Then we drove around and saw the Christmas lights, including the big Santa downtown (Which my dad saved in the 70’s by re-wiring it or some other thing that is over my head. He was really into saving historical things back then. Which I’m so thankful for because now we get to still enjoy it!) Our carbon footprint this Christmas was pretty bad considering all the driving around we did in search of pancakes but hey, we were all together. Hopefully re-cycling our gift boxes will earn us some forgiveness.

Miles was PRECIOUS tonight. We didn’t take him to Christmas Eve church this year because I figured it wouldn’t work with his schedule and he would be all tired and miserable, but next year I will try it. I miss not going, but we’ll go next year. This year was all about family and celebrating Christmas in our own way. I read a bit of a Santa book to him and he giggled through the whole thing. Oh my goodness we are so in love with our little guy. Last year John and I were preparing for Miles by buying each other stuff for the nursery for our gifts and we were SO clueless what we had in store for us. Oh my we feel so blessed. We were just overwhelmed with love tonight! (and that’s not the wine talking, I swear!)

Once Miles was asleep John and I opened our gifts to each other and from his out-of-town family. Fun stuff! More on that later. I got my first lens that is in the triple digits in cost (a first for me) and I immediately popped it on my 40D and even just among candlelight I could tell I was in for some good times shooting with it. It’s another prime lens, which is my favorite, so John still has yet to get his long lens he wants. We’ll get him his lens eventually. I’m thrilled though. We had a nerd’s christmas, indeed, as John got the new operating system for Mac and a super nerdy mouse on crack. (You’ll see photos later.) I told John it’s pretty bad that we buy each other gifts we use for work and he said, “Hello! That means we love what we do!” Yep, indeed it does. What a wonderful thing.

Then we popped in the Polar Express and I wrapped Miles and the pug’s gifts while John enjoyed the movie. (Many of Miles’ gifts were just toys we already had wrapped up like new.) Now we are playing with our gifts until the wine wears off.

What an awesome Christmas so far and we haven’t even experienced Miles with gifts yet.

So Merry Christmas everybody! I’m feeling a lot less buzzed and more relaxed, so I’m ready for bed. Thanks for tuning in and ready my chattiness.

Here’s a little virtual christmas card for all my loyal blog readers out there.

….of Bluewater Trail wish you peace & love this Christmas Season.

Love, Betsy, John, the pugs and baby Miles.

P.S. Two points to who can guess who took that photo!

p.p.s BTW, John and I did the card design. I’m excited that next year I’ll be more organized to provide custom Christmas card designs for my clients. Can’t wait for 2008!!!!! (My favorite numbers are 2 and 8, so it’s going to be an AWESOME year, I just know it!) For now, it’s time to focus on Christmas. And going to bed!