Christmas

This was definitely the most. . . interesting Christmas I've had so far! I'm sure Branden will say the same.
We got to spend time with our own immediate families, separate, and then together with both his extended family on Saturday, and mine on Sunday. The two experiences were very different in one way: his family knew about our pregnancy and mine hadn't yet! Here's a short(ish) play-by-play of my Christmas weekend:

Saturday- My nephew Gavin woke my family up at about 8:30 (not too early!) to open gifts. As usual, the adults opened their gifts, thanked each other, and watched Gavin tear through the endless pile of fun that Santa so graciously left for him. He loved all of his new presents, as did the rest of us, but I think the best part of the morning was watching Sophie run around the house showing off her new tennis balls and bones. She was wagging her tail and prancing through the living room like a little princess; I've never seen her more excited. The whole family thought it was hilarious. (Maybe this is one of those "had to be there" moments?)

Then, I went over to Branden's house for lunch with his family. It was really nice to meet the aunts/uncles I hadn't yet met or spoken to, and Grandma and Grandpa were so nice. After dealing with some embarrassing technical difficulties (pregnancy is NOT always pretty, my friends)I finally got to sit down and have a nice lunch with the family. Overall, it was a really fun afternoon spent with some great people. Thanks, Tussings! (Bonus: Brad and Janet got us "What to Expect When You're Expecting" the ultimate pregnancy bible! Oh, how we needed that.)

Sunday- Christmas: Round 2 began with my family stuffing ourselves into the mini van, picking up Branden, and heading to Westerville to my Uncle Tim's house. I usually only see his family on holidays, so Christmas is really special to me for that reason. After we arrived, some of my cousins and their families soon walked in the door, and the party was started.

The big hit of the day was Zachary and Jacob's new present, Tony Hawk's "Shred" for wii. It was soon pretty obvious that there was a fight between the 5-12 crowd and the 20-30 crowd for turns to play the game. Guess who won? Yep, Josh, Sam, Ryan and Andy (20's) gave up their snowboarding practice so that Gavin, Donna, and Sydney (4-6) could give it a try. Neither Branden nor I even tried to get in the mix, such a sacrifice. We had a GREAT lunch, got to talk to my long-lost cousins, and left with even more food than we had brought. Overall, a very successful day.

We decided not to tell my family the big news until after the dinner was over for several reasons, one being we DEFINITELY didn't want to be the center of attention when the event was meant to bring the whole family together to enjoy the holiday. We did send out the message afterwards, and I'm happy to say we received nothing but kind words and lots of support! Love you guys!

So here's to a wonderful Christmas, and many more together (plus one) in the future! I couldn't ask for a better family, whether they be part of the old, new, or growing.