MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It's snuck up on me fast, but I think I'm ready! Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, I especially like the shopping (not so much the spending). Most of my shopping was done before Thanksgiving, of course nothing got wrapped until this weekend though! Last weekend was spent at mom and dad's house making Christmas goodies and visiting Santa Claus. Griffin didn't love him, but he didn't scream (I considered that a success!) So, the presents are bought, wrapped and under the tree, the cards sent, the goodies made - bring on Christmas!! As usual our calendar gets pretty full with Christmas festivities. Christmas eve will be spent at both my Grandma Oehrlein's house and then Josh's Grandma Lange's. Christmas day will start at home with Santa gifts, then to Mom's for our family Christmas and on to my aunt Nellie's in Richmond for Christmas dinner. Christmas at Josh's mom and dad's will be Saturday after Christmas. The first weekend in January we celebrate Cousin Christmas on Saturday in Chanhassen and on Sunday is Christmas with Josh's Grandpa Digger in Freeport. Finally, we have Christmas with the Casper's (Josh's mom's family) on the 10th of January and that wraps it all up! (You understand now why I say BRING IT ON!) I love each gathering for different reasons, I just hope the weather cooperates for traveling!

By now, most of you probably know that Josh and I are expecting baby number 2, Griffin is going to be a big brother soon! While we weren't exactly trying for this one, we were not not trying and we are thrilled!! The baby is due June 6, that puts us almost 16 weeks right now. It seems crazy to think in only 5 months there will be a new baby Lange, but we couldn't be happier. As for the pregnancy, I feel great. The first few weeks I was pretty tired, but my energy is back now and so far so good. We had a dating ultrasound around 8 weeks and they said everything looks good right now. Our second ultrasound will be in January.

Griffin continues to grow and amaze us. We celebrated his first birthday two weeks ago. He loved the banana cake is grandma Patti made! Lots of family came to celebrate with us and we had lots of fun watching Griffin open his gifts (at times he was more interested in the packaging). Griffin and I just finished his first school session. We met lots of new people and learned some stuff too. It was neat to watch him interact with other kids his age. Each class there was a parent discussion part, so I got some good info too. Also, he started to walk about 3 weeks ago, he's becoming such a big boy!

Josh is slowing down at work now. This last week he started working 40 hour weeks with Fridays off. Most of those Fridays will be spent fishing I'm sure. He'll also have more time to do some projects around here. Yesterday he finished shelves in the basement for storage - one of the many projects included in finishing our basement. The plan is to have it finished by the time the baby comes.

For now, we continue to be happy and healthy and we wish the same for you in the new year!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!