Thanksgiving and Christmas 2008

Hi Everybody!
We had a great Thanksgiving and Christmas and thought we'd pop out a quick update for you.
We went to Georgia in November for Thanksgiving with family. That was out last trip before Pierce's little sister comes along! We spent Thanksgiving Day with Megan's family and had a great time feasting with Pierce's aunts, uncles, cousin Liana, Gigi (Grandma Kay), Nana, and Papa. It was quite a crowd! Even though we trimmed down the menu this year, there was still WAY too much food. Besides the great food, we had plenty to be thankful for this year too, including the new addition of Liana to the family, our new one on the way, and better health for Gigi this season!
The day after Thanksgiving, we went to Warner Robins and spent some time with Daniel's parents. Pierce's TuTu (Daniel's mom)and Megan did a little "Black Friday" shopping and Pierce and Grandpa Charlie and Daniel went for a tractor ride and got to see pigs, chickens, horses, and cows! That night, Grandpa Charlie made yummy brunswick stew and cornbread and we went with them to pick out their Christmas tree. They got a nice fat one with lots of nooks to poke ornaments into. They also gave an early Christmas present to Pierce: a John Deer tractor, which he adores. He's just really getting the hang of pedaling it around.
That Saturday, Maya and Mary-Stewart graciously threw a beautiful baby shower for Megan. We'll have pictures of that fun event on our daughter's new website soon! But we must mention that it was quite a gathering of wonderful women, including Pierce's Great Grandma Jeanne, who came all the way from Texas (Thanks again Grandma, it was so great to have you there)!
As we mentioned before, Thanksgiving was our last trip before baby arrives, so we had the great priviledge of having family come to us for the second year in a row! We so appreciated everyone's willingness to travel in light of Megan's condition. It was so great to get to see everyone!
Daniel's family came first and we had a Christmas party with Grandpa Charlie's family in Greensboro. That is where Pierce came as close to sitting on Santa's lap as anyone could have imagined in their wildest dreams (he's not quite ready to actually sit on a stranger's lap yet without squalling, which is fine with us)! Santa handed out gifts to all of the children and Pierce was fairly amazed.
The next night, we did another Christmas with TuTu, Grandpa Charlie, Aunt Haley, and Aunt Ashley.
Megan's folks came up next and we did our second annual double date with her parents and Matthew and Mary-Stewart. That was a lot of fun and uninterupted talking time! Why don't we do that more often? Many thanks to Maya for keeping down the fort while we were at dinner! The next night we exchanged gifts and then had a dinner with Daniel's yummy cranberry hens and trimmings and Mary-Stewart's should-be-award-winning deserts.
Christmas Eve was spent with just the three of us. We went to a candlight service at our Church and then got some take out Chinese and feasted at home. Pierce made cookies for Santa and put on his "cookie boy" pajamas and went to sleep for a long winter's nap with visions of what Christmas morning might bring. The only thing he had actually asked for was a sleigh bell, like the little boy gets as the "first gift of Christmas" in the movie Polar Express. In spite of the fact that he would have been totally thrilled with just that small gesture, we spent the rest of our evening setting up three new trains under the tree and wrapping the other gifts that we purchased for him. Of course, "Santa" also had to eat the cocolate chip cookies Pierce had made and stuff stockings. So, much later than planned, "Santa's helpers" enjoyed their own slumber.
Pierce woke up rather early Christmas morning and met Megan at his door, eagerly asking, "Santa come see me?" Daniel made a fun video of the rest of Christmas morning that you can enjoy here:

That afternoon, Megan baked a big ham, fixed up all the trimmings, and we had a nice family dinner. We just enjoyed watching Pierce quietly play with all of his new things for the rest of the day and then had a nice silent night.
Last night, New Year's Eve, we went to some friends' house and Daniel and Megan actually got to play a game of Cranium and have coffee and desert while Pierce and his friends, Owen and Mikey, played. Thanks Sarah and Mike, it was fun (btw Pierce woke up at 6:30 this morning, we hope yours slept later)!
And that brings us to this point in 2009! We hope you are all well and enjoying a day of reflecting. We will be reveling in Daniel's last bit of time off before our little girl arrives, enjoying the last few days with just the three of us.
As usual, there are lots of new photos in Pierce's album!
We love you all!