Special Gifts

Recently, I received some very special gifts, and I wanted to share them with you.

For Christmas, I received a lot of great gifts that were on my Christmas list - pertaining to baking (thanks Mom, Dad and Dawson!). My husband surprised me with a Rachael Ray cookbook! That was not on my list at all, but I enjoy watching her cook, the tips that she gives and I like a lot of her recipes. I was so excited about this gift, and I am really excited to start to use it. The cookbook is set up a little different than most cookbooks, so it will take a little getting used to. Dawson is so thoughtful - I just love him to pieces!

My sister surprised Dawson and I with a beautiful afghan that she crocheted for us! She is truly amazing and very talented! The colors and pattern that she chose are so beautiful. And, if that was not enough, she also made a afghan for our little baby (who will be born soon! Sometime within the next week!). They were awesome gifts.

This past weekend (Sat., 12/29), my family and Dawson's family threw me a little family baby shower. It was really nice and they blessed us with a lot of practical things, such as: diapers, wipes, a special baby blanket, a new outfit, and a new paci for the baby - which Brady wanted to try out, but we did not let him! My mom also makes these amazing cut out cookies - baby carriages and baby bottles. She decorated them and writes things on them too - they are amazing and I really like them a lot! I felt very blessed by all of them. The funny thing, is that I sort of helped to plan the get together months ago - on the premise that we would all watch the Giants-Patriots football game together. My family is Giants fans and Dawson's family is Patriots fans, so it was fun to watch that together - and it was a great game. (Patriots won, but not by much!). So, after I made the plans for all of us to get together, my sister and mom planned the shower!

Those are just a few things that people have done for me which made me feel special. I am also thankful for all of the help that my mom, dad and father in law gave to us to help get Brady in his new bedroom on Sunday evening. Their time is a priceless gift!

So, now we are going to focus on the baby's room. Dawson has to first fix the ceiling - where he stepped "wrong" in the attic the other day! Thank goodness he did not go through the ceiling, but he made some cracks in it! Hopefully, a lot of that room will be done in the next few days: ceiling needs to be fixed and painted, walls need to be primed and painted - and then the trim could also use some paint too. It would be nice to have that all done within the next week - it is not a huge room, so hopefully, it will not be too hard to do! I just need to decide on the exact color of paint that I would like in there!

By the way, the birth announcements are finally put together! I might just add something to the back of it! I am thankful that they are completed. They took a lot longer than I thought that they would - but they are done and are so cute. So, it was worth it! :) All that needs to be completed on it is the info - but we will have to wait a little longer for that to be added!