It's still November, not December. In case you were confused.

Hey all. Happy holidays. We've just been enjoying the days off and eating too much. We got out our Christmas decorations Friday morning, and the girls had a merry time decking the tree. Madeline put all the ornaments on one low laying branch and Kimberly threw colored balls around the front room. It was very festive. Jessie did step in and redistribute the decorations a little more equitably so our tree wasn't so lop-sided. We also did a little Black Friday shopping, which consisted of waiting until all the crazy people had gone home to sleep and going to one store at three in the afternoon to buy a bunch of non-sale items. Perfect shopping trip. I detest early mornings and mobs, so this is how we roll, and we love it.

I also had Jessie take another documentary picture, although the scenery is now season appropriate, because we take time to make this a merry exercise just for you.

This is me just shy of 29 weeks. Apparently I alternate between looking and feeling nine months pregnant and still just looking fat, which is awesome. I have started getting some comments from strangers in public, so I like to think I'm justified in my griping to Jessie everyday about how awkwardly large I feel. A magical transformation occurred about two to three weeks ago and I became acutely aware that I'm in the final third. I am now complaining of leg and hip pain to Jessie, going to extremes to avoid bending over, getting full much too quickly and hungry again even more quickly, and other fun third trimester things. I'm also getting kicked a lot more frequently, which is good and bad. It's never too painful because I'm pretty sure the placenta is in front blocking most the force. Or this boy is just a wimp who's going to get walloped by his sisters. Probably. But there's still a lot of good time I can almost forget I'm pregnant, so we don't have to surrender to despair and woe just yet. The holidays should still be pretty comfortable. I don't feel any rush to get anything done before a baby comes, because we have the basics (crib, onesies, diapers, car seat) and figure anything else can wait. After all, it really doesn't take much to keep a baby alive. Just some milk and a pen to contain your other children. So we're just going to chill the next few months, endlessly praise Jessie for picking up the slack on the housework, and be blissfully ignorant of any coming responsibility. I love this plan.