2007 Wrap Up

I can't believe it's the last day of 2007. I can't even remember what we did for last New Year's Eve, but I imagine that since I was pregnant it involved no alcohol and lots of sleeping. We spent this new years eve at home again... hitting the town on NYE just doesn't sound as fun as it once did (especially since you're pretty much required to stay up until midnight). For those of you who have been following along, I've been downloading all of my blog entries into a book that I'm going to have printed. So you could look at this post as the last page of my first blog book.

Christmas was a big whirlwind of activity. I'd like to say it was "fun", but I think a better way to describe it would be "hectic". And I don't like saying that. Christmas should be about Jesus, family, and friends and not be a giant headache, but there's just so much stress that it creates. Next year, I'd like to to it totally different, but it will probably be the same. Wears. Me. Out.

Our holiday weekend started off with the arrival of Mimi and Judy, Lee's grandmother and aunt, from Chattanooga. Lee and Ellie picked them up from the airport while I stayed home and wrapped gifts. We had a family Christmas dinner with Lee's family and my family on Sunday after a brief power outage that nearly sent the party packing to our house. For Christmas Eve, we went to 6:00 services with Lee's family and then went back to his parents house to open gifts. This meant that Ellie didn't get to bed until after 10:00 so she was sort of cranky on Christmas. Amidst all of this, Mimi got really, really sick (with Ellie's previous ailment) and had to be taken to the emergency room around midnight on Christmas Eve because she couldn't keep anything down. She's doing much better now. Elizabeth, Tee, and Beth all came down with it on Christmas Day. Luckily, we avoided round two of stomach bug hell.

On Christmas, we woke up, ate blueberry waffles, and then opened gifts. Lee gave me a necklace and a wallet and he got VAN HALEN tickets. Woo hoo! That's right - we're going to rock our socks off at the January 26th show. I also made him a photo book of Ellie and gave him Seasons 1 and 2 of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia on DVD. If you haven't seen that show, it's completely ridiculous and hilarious. After the celebration at our house, we went to my parents house for more presents and Christmas dinner. That's where Ellie received her favorite gift.

Ellie got a big red wagon. I don't know how she knew it was hers, but she squealed when she saw it and was totally tickled when she got to ride around in it. You can tell by looking at the picture that she loves it. I made my parents calendars on Shutterfly, which seemed to be a big hit.

In Ellie news, she has not eaten solid food since December 12. That's when she first got sick with her sore throat and then came down with the stomach flu. It kills me, because she was really liking solid food and now we're back to square one. I try every night to get her to eat oatmeal or veggies and nothing. She sits there with her lips pursed trying to keep every bit of it out of her mouth. She can actually cry with her mouth closed now (which is what she does when she gets tired of me trying to feed her). The doctor told me to keep trying and she'll eventually like it again. However, the good news is that she takes formula now. You know what this means? Good-bye boob and no more pumping! I'm so excited. I have a little guilt about it, but it's just getting too difficult. I'm still nursing her morning, noon and night so at least she's getting some of the good stuff. Her mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and evening feedings are formula. I think that making it 7 months and 2 weeks without buying any formula is pretty good!

So that's the end of our 2007 story. I wanted to end this post by reminiscing about what I'll remember most about 2007, but after the blur of pregnancy, the only thing I can think of is Ellie. Our family was so blessed this year with the her addition that I can't imagine that anything in 2008 could top it.