We had a wonderful Christmas here at the home of our friends, the Webbs. Tim made a fabulous lamb dinner, with lots of veggies and a Christmas pudding for desert. Then we opened presents, which were handed out by a very excited three year old, and we were regaled with stories from Magdalena's Dad about what Germany was like in the 50s. It was a lot of fun.

After returning from dinner we headed out for a walk with Finn, and Brendon decided that he wanted to try ice-skating at the rink they've erected a few blocks from us - needless to say, he'd had a beer or two with dinner. Finn and I had a fabulous time watching from the upper deck as Brendon's ice-skating prowess was evidenced to all of Munich (there may have been a bit of laughing involved on our part ;) Anyway, it was a good time and I would post pictures, but Brendon seems to have hidden the camera from me for fear of having his ice-skating genius shown to the world and making you all jealous. ;-)

Hope you're all having a great holiday season wherever you are!

Well, Brendon surprised me with tickets to the Bavarian State Opera for Christmas, which was great! We went to dinner tonight and then saw "Werther", which was sung in French and subtitled in German. The music was beautiful and opera house was gorgeous, but neither Brendon or I was very impressed by the poor, pathetic, love-sick Wether. In fact it was a bit tough to feel sorry for him at the end when he ran around the whole time crying "woe is me." So, although we both had a good time, apparently we've proven not to be too sentimental...Anyway, I'm including a picture of us all dolled up and ready to go to the Opera. It was a wonderful surprise and a great present. Now I'll just have to see if I can drag him to the ballet before we leave Munich. ;-)

Had fun putting together the baby bouncy seat today. Especially when I realized that I'd left the instructions back in the States. Luckily, it was pretty straight forward and I had a picture to work from. Still it took 20 min, leaving me to envision many years of upcoming late night Christmas Eve assembly projects for Brendon and I. ;-)

Other than that not much going on. Brendon's in Madrid for work today and I'm almost completely done Christmas shopping. I also made Brendon start watching the labor/birth video with me over the weekend. He agreed that it wasn't that bad so far -
there are 6 classes on the tape, the first was pre-labor. So, he now understands effacement, dilation, pelvic station and pre-labor signs and I think he's starting to wonder how I will ever fit a baby out of my pelvis. Then again, with only 8 weeks to go, so am I...

New belly pic of me at 32 weeks - enjoy!

We had a fun weekend here, got some Christmas shopping done and ate out every night! Brendon has also founded a new addiction for me by installing the Sims game on my computer. Damn him, now I will never get anything done around the house!

We also visited the Christmas Market at the English Garden in Munich with our friends, Tim & Magdalena Webb and their daughters, Lee and baby Zoe, which was fun. They have a bunch of food and drink stands (brats, funnel cakes, holiday punch-gluhwein, etc), carousel rides for the kids, crafts and gifts for sale at other stands and St. Nick walks around handing out candy to the kids. Very festive. Brendon and I have decided that this is a tradition they need to adopt in the States.

Then the guys headed back to Tim & Magdalena's to get dinner ready, but they forgot the keys. So, they were obliged to get a few beers in a pool hall that Hitler used to be a regular at (interesting trivia)- the Schelling Salon. We girls were told "no need to hurry, we'll find something to occupy ourselves" ;-) . But, of course we hurried to their rescue, and once home, Tim made a fabulous lasagna, we had good conversation and music, and their oldest daughter Lee cheesed for the camera with me. Good times.

Not much going on here. It's been pretty rainy and dreary for the past few days - even Finn isn't all that excited about going out. He has been very happy about the addition of the Sendlinger Tor Christmas market, which is right next to the park we walk in though, as they have stands where they sell brautwurst and other goodies. He keeps hoping some clumsy person will drops something when we walk by, but alas he has had no luck in that department yet. So, poor dog, just has to walk by with his tongue hanging out and mouth watering...

In very exciting news, I bought and got our Christmas tree up over the weekend - yippee. It is a stunning two footer, which makes our living room look very posh indeed ;-)

Also, went to the doctor today and my glucose test for gestational diabetes came back fine and my iron levels are back into the normal ranges (although still on the low end), so that's good news. Kinda cool too, the doctor measured the baby via ultrasound and the baby weighs in at about 2.9 pounds, which is apparently a perfect weight for 30 weeks. It seems weird to me that they can tell that from abdominal ultrasound measurements - and that she's only 2.9 lbs. of the total 18.5 lbs I've gained!

Take care everyone!