37 weeks, 4 days...Merry Christmas!

That's me at 37 weeks exactly, this past Monday...

Well, I am officially MORE pregnant than I've ever been before in my life today! This morning at 7.56am would have been the equivalent gestation to Josie's birth, and here I am, this afternoon, still hugely pregnant, cleaning the kichen on Christmas day with a squirmy little girl in my tummy! Of all the milestones, this honestly has to be the most significant. Now, it's alien territory - new territory - from here on out.

Who know: perhaps I'll suddenly start sporting HUGE stretchmarks? I have no clue - my skin has never been this stretched out before...


We had the baby shower last weekend - which was...wonderful! It was so fun! My sister in law, B, came down and arranged the games, which were super excellent! We got a whole bunch of wonderful stuff - everything we needed. Even a pack 'n' play from my friends C and A! Wonderful! Really, I am very ready for Isobella to make her entrance now.

Here I am, being the model for the "how big is it around her belly?" game: incidentally, that measurement was 41 inches...


Once again, posing the belly so that people were able to gauge an estimate of it's bigness...


Here are about half the people there, in our living room. I think almost everyone we invited came, bar one who couldn't make it and had told us beforehand, and one who'd come down with tonsillitis. So we had a great turnout! Afterward, a couple stayed and we drank cocoa and ate chocolate until later in the night...


Here I am, playing the "what's in the pillowcase?" game - there were twenty baby items in the pillowcase, and we had to remember and write them down, simply from the feel... I got seven, I think. Winner got 14!


Last, but not least, here we all are, posing goofily by the Christmas tree last weekend.


So, Happy Yule, all of you - may the best wishes of the season be with you not matter what your spiritual beliefs are! I hope that, even if this is the first season without someone you love, something beautiful happens at least once to help you remember that actually, life is pretty amazing... Because it really is, isn't it. Big hugs to you all!