Baby shower

My friend Rebecca hosted a small shower for me last Sunday- it was so fun to be together with friends and to celebrate our baby! We played a few games- word unscrambling and "guess with a ribbon how big Elizabeth's tummy is", and had a time of prayer as well. The gifts were very sweet and generous, and many of them were quite cuddly!

Here are Louise and Rebecca.



Rebecca is one of the most talented decorators and gracious hosts I know- here's a bit of her workmanship. She made delicious food, including mini quiches, fruit salad, artichoke dip and a lemon cake with whipped cream (pictured here).

Susan, me, Mary and Allison.

Laura came all the way down from New Hampshire with little 6-week old Naomi!

Amanda and Louise, holding a blanket that my aunt Lee and cousin Veronica made for us (Lee also came down from New Hampshire!).

Super small group surprise

Last night our small group had a surprise "baby blessing" night for us. It was so fun and encouraging. People brought some special snacks (including pumpkin mousse, snickerdoodles, sparkling cider, etc), and we had an extended time of prayer for Matt and me and baby. They also got us the cutest Winnie the Pooh musical mobile, pictured below (it plays the Winnie the Pooh song), a Winnie the Pooh teething blanket, and a really generous gift certificate to Burlington Coat Factory. I love how our baby is being born into such a caring, supportive community. The time really lifted my spirits, especially after a long day.

(PS- I might get tired of alliterative titles eventually, but still having fun with them!)

Sneak Preview of our Babe

As promised, below is a picture of our special little one. I've rotated it so you can see baby looking directly at you. We think baby looks very sweet and content in this picture.

The picture is of the baby's whole face, and appearances to the contrary, our baby doesn't actually have a thick head of hair yet (as far as we know)- the black stuff above the baby's face is just amniotic fluid. :)

In other news, we had our first real snow of the season Sunday night. It was an inch or so, and put me very much in the winter/Christmas mood. We have two advent calendars we're opening- an artsy one from Bob Slate and then a chocolate one our friend Susan got us (yum!). We're reading the Divine Hours vesper services for advent. And hopefully we'll get a tree this coming weekend. It's a fun time of year.