First Book

Today I found the perfect first book for Ellie, I'll Teach My Dog a Lot of Words. Given that she's my daughter, she's bound to be talkative and bossy. I'm sure Coco will be the recipient of many school lessons as she pretends to be a teacher.

Merry Christmas

Today has been a fantastic day. We decided to sleep in, enjoying our last year for many years in which we won't have children to wake us up. Mom accidentally told her mom that we'd be getting up early so she ended up being our wake up call at 8:30am.

We opened presents first, and had a great time. Daddy helped me to get mommy an iTunes gift card, and mommy helped me to get daddy a card (and to sign it with my very own paw print). They both enjoyed my gifts.

They explained that Santa had a hard time getting to Meat for Cats & Dogs to pick up my favorite bones so that's why I don't have any yet, but they promised I'll get some soon. Santa did get me this great toy I didn't even know existed. It's fantastic and even squeaks. Thanks, Santa - I believe now.

Mommy and daddy bought each other lots of presents. Daddy took the cake though by getting mommy a gift certificate to Dosha for a pre-natal massage. Daddy says his massages just aren't as good as he knows mommy needs so now mommy can go get a nice official massage.

Daddy liked his chocolate-y stocking stuffers. I tried to enjoy them by chewing on the end of dad's full stocking, but mommy wouldn't let me.

Dad's favorite stocking stuffer (and our morning entertainment post-presents).

My present to mommy. I did a good job wrapping.

Me chewing on my new toy. Mom's present from me in the foreground.

Daddy always carries a hanky. Now he has 12 new ones and a wood valet to hold them.

Don't worry, mommy's not trying to bring back the bodysuit. Daddy is a genius and bought this cute onesie for the baby.

"How to Traumatize Your Children" aka what to do with kids but by doing the opposite of what the book says. A little reverse psychology test from mommy to daddy.

Another adorable onesie for the baby. Too cute!

"The Intellectual Devotional" - 365 days of random information for infomanics like daddy.

Daddy showing of his much needed new robe. I clearly found much more interesting things going on outside the patio door.

Yummy homemade breakfast! (I didn't get any...foo-y!)

Lance & Abby

Mommy's friend from college, Abby, and her husband, Lance, came over for dinner tonight. Abby is a dear friend of mommy's who helped her through some interesting times during her last semester of college. She and Lance have been in Switzerland for the past year or so learning French. And now they're headed to Cameroon. It's was pretty exciting to hear about the work they'll be doing with learning languages, developing a format for writing those languages, literacy training and translation (including the Bible). I don't read, but if I did, I think it would be great to have books in my own language. It's hard for me to believe that there are still people who don't have a writing system for their language, let alone books.

Praise the Lord for folks like Lance and Abby who are willing to give up their lives to change those of others.