It's 2009 already?!?!

Wow 2008 sure did fly by!!!! I'm back at work today unfortunately for a full 5 day week...yuck! I have only had to work about 3 days in the past 2 weeks, so this will be a LONG week for sure. The holidays were so nice to be off work and be able to spend time with our family and friends. The Sunday before Christmas I had some of my close friends over to the house for a little get together. Carrie was in town from Sacramento, Addy from Nashville, Jeni from Auburn, Jenny of course lives here now and Amy couldn't make it from ATL but she was there in spirit. :) We had some yummy appetizers & did a little dirty santa swap...I used my fondue pot for the first time and the chocolate dipped in fruit, vanilla marshmallows from Wm-Sonoma, angel food cake and pretzels were a big hit. We went to dinner after that at J. Alexander's...it was SO nice to see my girls!!! The week of Christmas was extremely busy with wrapping presents, cleaning, cooking and getting everything ready for having the fam over on Christmas day. We had our mothers, my brother and Justin's sister and our brother-in-law and niece over. Justin's grandfather had been in and out of the hospital the past week so they weren't able to make it. We had a huge feast as everyone made something to bring and opened presents. We were so stuffed that barely anyone could eat dessert. Later that night we went to my Dads to visit with them and then to Justin's Dads the next day for lunch. I was exhausted by the weekend!!!

We finally got a chance to go register for baby items even though we have already gotten a million things for the little guy!!! My mother has gone crazy on gifts. I think she is more excited than we are. :) Oh and we have finally decided on a name....CARTER!!!! He doesn't have a middle name yet but Matthew is winning so far so we'll see. Carter was my favorite boy name from the beginning and I think it flows well with Flurry. We registered at Babies R Us which was enough for Justin...you can be in that store forever!! I also did a registry at Pottery Barn Kids online and went to Target this past weekend to register there. I was a little apprehensive about registering at Target b/c supposedly you can't return anything without a gift receipt even if it is on your registry. So I tried to be selective and pick things I really liked or that are the same as items we picked at Babies R Us. Glad the registering part is over now but I still have to decide on fabrics so Sara can get started on the bedding and we can pick out paint colors!

Justin & I decided it would be fun to go to Auburn for New Years since there was a men's basketball game at 5:00, we could go eat at some of our favorite places and it would be fun just to get away for a night. We left mid-morning on New Years Eve and went to eat at Niffers for lunch and then shopped around for awhile. They have a new baby shop downtown which was suprising to see but we checked it out. It was pretty small and didn't have a ton of stuff or much AU stuff for that matter. I was craving a vanilla chai from Taylors Bakery but of course they were closed until today like a lot of the shops down there. Everything shuts down during the holidays since it becomes quite a ghost town w/o all the students. We checked into our room at the conference center and went to the guys game at 5 which they won! We went to eat at Mikata (our fav Japanese place ever) afterwards and then back to the hotel room to watch football and hangout. I think we were in bed by 10:30! We had a great time just the two of us and it was nice to drive around and see all the new stuff being built w/o a million people there for football.

This weekend we finished up organizing and cleaning the new office area downstairs at the house. Justin decided he wanted to move the office down in our basement room so that it wouldn't be off the guest bedroom anymore and so that he can work more from home during tax season and after Carter gets here. He ordered another desk and two more monitors so now he has 3 monitors to work with and a huge L shaped desk!! The room downstairs is big and was not really being utilized except for our treadmill and storing stuff so it really looks a lot better down there now. We also went to Thomasville and found a chest of drawers for the foyer. I can't wait 'til it gets delivered! I have been wanting something in that little alcove by the stairs since we moved in and finally found something I really like.

Tonight is the season premiere for the Bachelor and I'm having Ginger, Sara and Jennifer over for dinner to start our weekly ritual of taking turns having the girls over to eat and watch it! We fell in love with Jason last season and were so sad when Deanna picked Jesse over him!! I know it is sad that we get so excited over a show but it is really fun girl time & something I looked forward to every week! :)