My Favorite Holiday . . .

Is Ground Hog's Day!! Is anyone else as ready for spring as I am??? I can tolerate the cold and the snow up until Christmas, which is just a few days after the official beginning of winter, and then I'm done with it. When wonderful February 2nd hits I know there's only 6 more weeks until beautiful spring arrives!!! Once the messy commutes start, like this last week or so, I decide I like to have more confidence in being able to travel safely. Little Janie has already been in her first official car accident which was so minor she slept through it. (Some teenage kid slid down a snowy hill just enough to kiss our bumper with his mom's minivan.)

Christmas can be my second favorite holiday. It didn't used to be that high on my list of holidays, but now that I've got Mark, all of his family, and now even our little daughter it's a lot better than it used to be. Mark LOVES Christmas and he loves to talk about all his memories as a kid he has about the trains, and the tree, and getting up, and the traditions. It's so cute!! We've been VERY casual about this Christmas this year. Our tree has about 20 little ornaments on it so it looks practically empty. We strung a few lights around really quick, and we'll be finishing our shopping on the 23rd. So no other decorating, no massive projects, no cards from us (I know you're all sad about it too), and no treats being made. It's been really nice!

While we haven't done much for the holiday, having our daughter has helped us focus more on what Christmas is really all about more than usual. We went to Savior of the World and as soon as baby Jesus arrived Mark and I were practically sobbing. While Janie is our sweet little miracle, He was our greatest miracle and we've got a greater appreciation for His birth, life, atonement, and death now that we have this new perspective to view it all from.

Janie's doing great. We've both survived the first couple of weeks of work! I think she got the better end of the deal though. She gets to go play with her grandma or my friend Amy and Collin (Amy's baby) during the week while I sit in the middle of a cubical farm doing my thing. I'm just glad she's been pretty good for them. I was a little disappointed after that first week though because I was really looking forward to spending the weekend with her and I came down with a cold late Thursday so I was terrified to come within 5 feet of her other than to feed her. But this last weekend was fabulous. Janie's becoming a regular peek-a-boo player which is super cute!! She starts smiling when you cover her face and then it just gets bigger when you uncover her. I've got a video of her and Mark playing together and I think Mark is actually the cuter of the two. He's really adorable! She was just kind of "whatever" about it that time. I'll have to get it posted. We have some pictures of her with Santa I need to post too. We'll get some on here sometime in the next week or so. I'll put it on Mark's honey-do list. :o)