Happy holidays!

We've had a wonderful week visiting my parents for the holidays.  Sacha's parents came down for several days, as well, and we all spent lots of time eating, drinking, making merry, catching up with old friends, and exploring the area.  We even went to the Oakland Zoo on the day after Christmas, which ended up being quite the experience.  After the terrible events at the SF Zoo, there were news cameras everywhere at Oakland and quite the crowd at the tiger exhibit.

In more important Dec. 26th news, we celebrated Sacha's 30th birthday that day!  Happy birthday again, sweetheart.  We met when Sacha had just turned 23 and I was 22 and look at us now!

Adding to the lineup of big days around Christmas, today is the 7th anniversary of the day we met.  Wow!  I'll tell the full story of how we met some other time, but suffice it to say that we never could have predicted that we'd end up being married and procreating!  I'm so glad it worked out this way. 

We fly home on Sunday and then we have Sacha's next pre-natal appointment on Jan. 4th.  She's been feeling really good these days, for the most part, and we are both very relieved that the nausea and exhaustion seem to be gone!  Her belly has really popped in the past week or so.  Her uterus was apparently tilted towards her back originally and the nurse practitioner told us that it would tip forward at some point and her belly would pop out.  It did!  She has a very cute little baby bump going on.  Maybe I'll get her to let me post a picture :)

Mateo's been having a fun time basking in attention from all sides.  He's spent quality time with all his grandparents and his auntie and uncle.  He's also learned some new words and signs - where, car, neigh, moo, bear, grrr, sleepy, book, bath, water, mommy, bubby (grandma), poppa (grandpa), dance (the sign), and maybe some other ones.  We looove watching him learn!

Life is pretty great these days.  We feel so lucky to be at this point in our lives.  Happy holidays and a very happy new year to all!