Back from Georgia, Land of Snow

After a long and very exhausting day of traveling (through which I learned to always pack more snacks than you think and always buy food at unexpected, unplanned stops at airports on what should have been a direct flight) on Saturday, Pete and I made it home from our lovely Christmas trip to Georgia. I can't even remember the last time I was able to see so many of my cousins all within the same week. Having my parents now living closer to the rest of their extended families than before (when they were in Pennsylvania) makes a big difference.

Spending time with so much family--both immediate and extended--was absolutely wonderful, and the theme of the year seemed to be happy endings. I have two cousins who are "older" (as in, over 30) and have been wanting to be married for a while, and one just got married to an amazing woman just a couple of weeks ago, and the other just got engaged. The cousin I've always been closest to is also engaged and getting married two weeks before my due date (which sadly means I won't be able to be there, of course). And the cousin I mentioned in my last post who had a miscarriage last May announced that she's twelve weeks pregnant!

And, finally, the two inches of snow in Atlanta on Christmas and ten inches up in North Georgia were quite unexpected and fun!

There was so much snow around my aunt's house in North Georgia that we had to park a ways up the road from her and walk to her house carrying our stuff (and not prepared with great shoes, I might add). The four children of cousins (first cousins once removed?), two of whom are from Florida, thought they had died and gone to heaven to have so much snow to play in with so many adults around to play with. Though I think my dad spent about 10 times longer playing with them than any other adult. Did I mention that he loves kids?

Here's my 25-week picture from Christmas Day. The blue ribbon pinned to my shirt was from the little surprise shower my aunt threw for me after we had all opened presents. It was nothing huge--just a delicious chocolate cake and gift cards various family members contributed--but very sweet and unexpected nonetheless. I also think my belly grew quite a bit over the week we were there. It's definitely bigger now, and even my grandmother remarked when we left that it seemed bigger than when we had arrived.

Pete and I did manage to squeeze in a quick trip to Buy Buy Baby while we were there. He absolutely hates shopping, and trips--when he's away from his work and forced to do nothing--are one of the few times he can get in the mood. The only thing we wanted to look at was strollers, and not to buy but just to figure out what we wanted. We have pretty specific criteria with our trip to China in mind--we want something very light  and compact to travel with and fit in taxis, that also reclines fully to work for newborns. I also thought we'd appreciate a stroller that you can set a carseat on for when we're back here. We went in thinking we'd go with a Maclaren Techno but then decided on a Baby Jogger City Mini. Pete convinced me that I would really appreciate the added stability and flexibility of jogging wheels, and it's much easier to fold. Unfortunately, there aren't as many used Baby Joggers out there as there are Maclarens, so we might end up having to get a new one. I keep complaining about the cost (though it's cheaper than the Maclaren), but Pete reminds me that one night in the hospital is going to cost us more than buying the stroller brand new. Point made.