We Becomes Three: parties

it's been a busy holiday season so far, and it's not because of the holidays! first we had thanksgiving and my high school reunion. then my shower. then my mom's surprise birthday/retirement party. oh, and then our family holiday party. oy....i'm glad we have the excuse of not being allowed to travel for the holidays, cuz this mama needs a break after all that!

my friends/family baby shower was held on sunday of thanksgiving weekend. i had a feeling that a lot of people wouldn't be able to make it because of the date, but more than i expected came, and i was so touched. my mom and callie worked their butts off to make it a special day, and i was so overwhelmed. callie made cake pops and chocolate-covered oreos. they made a ton of food, including stromboli, stuffed figs, salad, asparagus rolls, and meatballs. they also made sangria and hot apple cider, which i don't normally drink but have recently been craving.

step-aunt betsy, step-sister ashley, and callie

the spread - so much yummy food!

mimi ruth and donna (2 of my mil's best friends), plus nicole and jody (bil's girlfriend)

2 of my besties, nicole and abriel, abriel's mom melinda, and mil

callie and me

2 of my coworkers/friends, stacy and karen

matt's cousin dawn, aunt tana, cousin beth, and cousin danielle

matt's aunt donna, plus my friends stephy and mel

my mom made the pennant banner - the fabric in the middle (the argyle one) is the same one she is using for the bench cushion and blanket that she's making for baby's room! plus you can see all the cake pops and the sangria!

callie didn't organize any shower games, which was perfectly fine with me. i always find them awkward, anyway. the only thing she made sure people did was leave their fingerprint on this amazing print she had made for the baby's room. i cannot wait to hang it up; it's going right in the middle of the gallery wall over the dresser. we had all the aunts/uncles/cousins add their fingerprints at our holiday party this past weekend, and matt and i will add ours!

i'd say gift opening took about 45 minutes. people were extremely generous, and i was so overwhelmed with all the thoughtful gifts that people got. we didn't get nearly as much clothing as i'd expected, and we got no diapers, which was shocking (nobody really knew about our plans to cloth diaper). we also got very few gift receipts, so hopefully babies r us is fairly forgiving in their return policies. but overall, we got a ton of great stuff, and i had a great time coming home and washing everything and putting it away. the nursery is really coming together; i can't wait to show it to you guys!!

on monday at work, i had this incident that i needed to report to my boss. so on tuesday, she sent me an email asking me to please come to her office to discuss the situation further. we had a staff meeting scheduled at 1pm, so she asked me to come by at 12:15. i was kind of annoyed that she wanted me there 45 minutes before our meeting (her office is in our townhouse, which is a block away from the hospital) - i didn't think it would possibly take 45 minutes to discuss the issue, and then i'd be kind of stuck over at the office until the meeting started. around noon, i got caught up in something, so i shot her a quick email to say i'd be there but a few minutes late. i got over to the office around 12:25, but not before i noticed that stacy, my officemate, had taken her coat, which i kind of thought was strange but thought maybe she had to run to the pharmacy to get meds for a patient. anyway, i got to the office and my boss was waiting for me. she suggested that we should go upstairs for our meeting, so i just obliged and headed up the stairs. as i got to the top, i realized that it was not a meeting with my boss to discuss the incident, but rather a surprise baby shower! my department threw me a fabulous baby shower, complete with little italy pizza (stacy made sure to get chicken bacon ranch pizza for me, god love her), cake, brownies, and cupcakes. they had taken up a collection and gave us our bathtub and hooded towels, as well as some very generous gift cards. i was definitely surprised and so touched!

matt, baby ike, and i are so very very lucky. this little boy is very loved by so many people.

on december 2nd, we threw my mom's surprise party. matt and i were in town for "a haircut and to pick up matt's car," and also "our last weekend to be home and see everyone before baby comes." it was a lame excuse, but mom bought it. my step-dad had rented out a room at the country club for the party, so in order to get her to the club, the plan was that matt and i would meet them for brunch after church. the party started at 2, and we were supposed to meet them at noon, with instructions from jeff to show up late so we could drag things out a bit. we showed up about 25 minutes late for brunch, using the excuse that i had fallen asleep again and matt let me sleep, since i was sick. i was sure she had no idea about the party, because the whole day before and the morning of she kept insisting that if i wasn't feeling well they would just pick up some soup and come home for lunch. i assured her i'd be fine for brunch. anyway, we finished eating around 1:30, at which point matt, jeff, and i looked at each other and thought, "how the heck are we going to stall her for another 1/2 hour?" well, she went to the restroom and ran into some other club members and got to talking to them, which killed about 15 minutes. after she came back to the table, i started talking to her about callie's shower. that killed about 10 minutes, at which point we all (slowly) started gathering our things and getting ready to leave. she tried to head out the back door, like usual, but jeff told her that they had put up the christmas decorations upstairs and he wanted to see them. matt shook jeff's hand like we were leaving, and i said, "well, no, i want to see the decorations, too!" so the 4 of us headed up the stairs towards the room where the party was. as we reached the top of the steps, we saw my mom's philadelphia cousins, and she said, "oh my gosh, look who's here!" she still didn't get it - she thought they just happened to be in hershey. it wasn't until she rounded the corner and saw several other friends and family that she figured it out. i ushered her into the party room and everyone yelled surprise. she really had no idea about the party and was completely surprised! yay!! there were probably close to 100 people there - friends and family came from all over to celebrate with her, and it was such a special day. i'm so thrilled that so many people were able to come and be with her! (most of these pictures are courtesy of my step-aunt, which is why all of my step-relatives are in the pictures!)