Holiday Catchup!

Grandma Jo's Nativity Scene..She actually hand-painted the figurines!

Greetings!!

So stinkin' overdue for an update.  Or a good one, rather.  I owe you Christmas, New Year's, Birthday and Baby updates.

It wasn't technically our first Christmas here in Minnesota, but it was our first happy Christmas here where we actually felt alright sticking around.  Years ago, Cardo and I opted to stay in town to save some money and ended up being super sad and alone-feeling.  This year, we obviously didn't have a choice but to stay home due to my travel restrictions being so far along and such.  It was made markedly better than our experience years ago in several ways:  Our cozy new home, seeing it through the eyes of a 3 year old child, and best of all, family.  Ricardo's parents spent Christmas with us which made it so much brighter and more worthy.  We also enjoyed a ton of time with Cardo's brother Valentin. We missed so many people by not going home (Yole and Jeff, Gianna and Gabriel, Christmas Eve at Grandma Dambro's, Mac, Marley, my mom, etc.) but in light of the circumstances, this was an incredible alternative.

On our way to church Christmas Eve

We had a feast, and look who has been an incredible helper these days

The "before" photo on Christmas Eve, and this was even before Santa made his way over!

Grandma and Grandpa Torres enjoying their Chulita

Fancy Pants Ali scoping out her spoils

Torres Family Photo

Lovin' the new trendy vest from Grandma D

Cardo surprised me with the conventional oven I've been wanting!

The Christmas Eve aftermath

Brother Elf preparing to bid farewell until next year.  His reviews regarding Alessandra were apparently raving as evidenced by the glowing report from Santa and his elves.  You can see it here.

Christmas Morning Cuddles

She received a doctor's kit from Santa and will now only respond to Dr. Torres.  Here she is interviewing the patient.

Here is Dr. Torres nursing a sore knee back to health with a syringe...

...And some painkillers.  Take it easy on the meds, Patient, sheesh!

Christmas Day aftermath

GeoTrax!

The day after Christmas found us celebrating even more family time with cousins Isabella and Alexis for a two-day sleepover!  Ali was in Heaven getting to hang out with her cousins!

Grandma and Grandpa were in Heaven too with the Minnesota contingent of their grandbabies all together!

Lucky for me, they were all here to have a early mini-birthday celebration too!!

Thanks you guys, the cake was delicious!

New Year's Eve certainly has a different twist when there are certain people who are not in a position to throw down as in years' past.  (Guilty.)  Grandma and Grandpa were due to leave the day before but ended up opting to stay (more on that later), so we headed to Outback for dinner and then came back to the house to alternate watching the Dick Clark special and the spicier version on Univision.  Honestly, I'm not sure which one was more depressing, the robot dressed in a Dick Clark outfit, or the Spanish-speaking host at Disneyland dressed in a dead fox.  Our favorite part of the evening, however, was when we put Ali to bed and did an early NYE toast so we could include her.  The next day we all agreed that regardless of the time on the clock, that was the REAL celebration.

Ali and her twin awaiting the clock to strike 10.

A rare occasion for us, especially here in MN, we did NOT have a white Christmas.  It was sort of sad, to tell the truth!  It did come through for us on New Year's Eve though, in the biggest square-shaped flakes we have ever seen.  Grandpa Torres turned into a giddy boy right before our eyes and went out to catch some of the flakes.

Observing

Catching

Keeping the specimens for freezing and further observation

Ali's turn!

And in baby news, we are definitely getting closer, but not close enough for me.  :(  Wednesday is 39 weeks officially and I will need to squeeze in a belly shot since it's been awhile!  I am heading to the doctor's once a week now, and each week shows more and more progress.  Three weeks ago I received my first cervical check, and was already dilated to 3 whole centimeters!  The following week I was dilated to a "3 plus", and last week I was a 4.  Even as recent as last week, doc said that I am still pretty thick in terms of effacement, but that could change quickly if baby decides he's ready to come out.  Pretty much every week she's told me that he could "come tonight or in two weeks, who knows?"  The uncertainty is killing me!  We will see what this Wednesday brings, but I have a feeling it's more of the same.  As a reminder, Baby Torres is due on January 25th, so we still technically have some time left on the clock, but everything is telling me he'll be a bit earlier.  I thought he'd be here by now, but, not so much.  So here I sit, still coming into the office, still running errands as needed, and slowing down A LOT around the house.  Bending over is an impossibility (so why in the hell do I seem to drop EVERYTHING?!?) and thank God my mother is here to help out.  

Cardo's parents stayed several days past when they were planning to due to the 3 cm dilation news, and I begged my mama to come out a full 9 days early to be around should Baby arrive, so far, all for naught.  But both sets of parents have been AMAZING around the house and with Ali, helping us out wherever we need it.  The house is clean, dinner is on the table, laundry is folded, child is taken care of...God love retired parents!

I'll be posting photos soon of Ali and Grandma Jo, as they've been having a fantastic time too!  

I'll need to get a photo of my 39 week belly as mentioned earlier, but here's to hoping I don't have to post a 40 week belly and can instead post one of our precious new Baby Boy.  I'm ready!!!

Much love and sorry for the long gap in posting.  I'll be staying on top of it now that anything could happen!!!