BABY MANIA!

Is it just my perception or is everybody in the world having a baby soon? Let's see how many pregnancies I know about... 2 at church, 3 old friends, and 2 in Utah. No wait... make it 4 old friends. And that's not even counting the people I know who plan to get pregnant soon (about 3 or 4). Is this normal? I guess I have crossed into that stage of life where I am surrounded by people having babies. It wouldn 't be such a big deal if it didn't make me pine over having one of my own.
I see a baby and feel convinced that it is the thing I want the most right now. Then I push the thought aside and say it's not time yet. I'm not all emotional about it, but I feel a twinge of jealousy each time I hear about another lady who's expecting. My mom says it's the nesting instinct. That kind of makes it sound cooler than being "baby hungry." But that's what I am--I have a place in me that is filled when I give. Helping in the Nursery at church, sometimes a kid will just want someone to hold them. That's my favorite part. I feel so needed. So I will let the nursery children be my surrogate children until it's really my time to be a mother.

AGAIN... really?

I'm shocked. The snowy and icy weather continued all week, so church was cancelled again. Something about it being dangerous to drive in 6 inches of snow topped off with an inch of frozen rain. Perhaps it really is an Arctic Blast. It has been strange being stuck at home most of the week. Friday I was pretty desperate to get out of the house and get some exercise, so I went for a walk and returned two and a half miles later really cold and wet. It felt good though. Then last night Eric and I played in the snow. First we made snow angels, then we took turns riding down our street in a garbage bag. If you have never tried it before, they make great sleds--inexpensive and really easy to carry back to the top of the hill! (But be sure to get the heavy duty kind.) ;) While sledding, we had some neighbors come by on skis. Later on the news we saw other people skiing down Madison Street in Oregon City. Now how often can a person do that!? Pretty cool.

The BEST Part of Oregon in the Winter

...is that it snows a couple inches and it's a HUGE deal. Of course the snow didn't stop there; it has snowed all day and put a thick blanket over everything in site. The funniest part is that things are shut down because of the snow. Granted, this "storm" is a little more snow than the occasional Christmas dusting, but it probably doesn't deserve the title the news reporters give it ("Arctic Blast"). Church services were cancelled this morning and I know for a fact the local library is closed... which is a really big deal for the city of West Linn because the people here put millions into their library and keeping it open. So with things cancelled and closed for the day, we've had a family-oriented day--even more than any other Sunday. We visited Eric's parents and went with them to the tree farm to get a Christmas tree. Everything just seems more magical and memorable in the snow. This is already a Christmas to remember.

Sugar Cookies

Yesterday I made whole wheat bread and it did not turn out so great. Luckily, I also made some sugar cookie dough last night and got to cut it into shapes and bake them today with my mom. They turned out perfect! (Well, compared to the bread they did.) I did some with mini cookie cutters and the rest were normal size. Then we made chocolate frosting, red peppermint frosting, green frosting, and yellow coconut frosting. It reminded me of good childhood memories. The sprinkles were the best part. Hooray for Christmas! Who's up for some caroling?

Let Christmas BEGIN!

I baked a pumpkin cheesecake for Thanksgiving, we shopped the Black Friday sales, and I've canned marionberry jelly to give as gifts to family. I'm all set! Choir rehearsals have begun, the mall is crazy busy, and the bakery starts making their holiday stollen bread this week (so delicious because it is topped with butter rum sauce and coarse sugar). WOOHOO! I couldn't ask for more, right? And on top of that, we get to visit Utah really quickly this coming weekend. :D