December Celebrations

Is it just me, or does the entire month of December seem to fly by quicker each year? This month we celebrated my 29th birthday (the first of many 29th birthdays, I'm sure) by taking a quick "staycation" to the Plano/Frisco area. Each year Ryan's birthday, my birthday and our anniversary come around in the same 4-week period. To adequately celebrate all those momentous occasions, we started planning mini getaways each year....it's been a fun tradition that I hope we'll always continue.

Year 1, we stayed at Southlake Towne Square in the new Hilton and managed to get all our Christmas shopping done in one weekend.

Year 2, we tried out our posh Dallas personas, staying at the ZaZa Hotel in Uptown, riding the old-fashioned street cars, visiting the King Tut exhibit, and eating at a few of the many hoity-toity restaurants in the area.

This year was a little more low-key....we stayed at the Marriott in the Shoppes at Legacy (where the whole wedding party also stayed the weekend of our wedding), ate yummy Campisi's pizza and Original Pancake House goodies, and shopped our feet off at Willow Bend Mall. All in all, a great weekend with the hubby! Who knows how this tradition might evolve as we add Baby Griffin to the mix next year :)

That reminds me, I don't think we've announced it to the cyberworld yet, but we decided to name our little boy GRIFFIN THOMAS (Ryan's Poppa, who passed away this summer, and my dad are both named Tommy, so we loved Thomas for a middle name). We announced the name to our families at Thanksgiving, getting my family to play a game of hangman to guess the name, and having Ryan's family do a little word unscramble with puzzle pieces. It was a lot of fun for everyone, and I think we may have started a new naming tradition for the fams.

Little Griffin is doing great...moving around all the time and getting bigger every day. I'll post another belly pic soon, so everyone can see just how much we've grown :)

We've also been gearing up for Christmas at our house...and thinking about how different things will be this time next year. I can't wait to add our little guy to the festivities! I've always loved Christmas, and I can only imagine the new wonders I will see as I experience this blessed season through a child's eyes.

One more major celebration to add to the mix....my sisters, Jennifer and Amy, BOTH graduated from Baylor last weekend!!! What a huge accomplishment! We all headed to Waco to celebrate with them (before Ryan and I continued south to Houston for a friend's wedding), and cheered our hearts out as they walked across that stage. I hope they both know how proud of them we are....Ryan's been a part of the girls' lives since they were in middle school, so I think he's been looking forward to this occasion as much as I have. We loved our time at Baylor and I'm so glad all my sisters got to experience the same thing. Jen & Amy, we love you and can't wait to see what God has in store for you.