Christmas in Dubuque

After Christmas Brunch in Oconomowoc, Jason and I hit the road again and headed to my Grandma's in Dubuque, IA. We really lucked out on the weather. The 2 days we traveled over Christmas were the 2 days that had great traveling weather. Although we did not make it in time for the big Danner Family Dinner, we reached grandma's before all my aunts, uncles and cousins left. It was great seeing everyone.

On Friday Tricia and Jeremy got to Dubuque and we were able to celebrate our immediate family Christmas. The evening was spent playing Battleship, Euchre and Mexican Train Dominoes. We had a blast!

Christmas at Gigi & Opa's!

Christmas morning started our holiday trek. We drove down to Oconomowoc to celebrate Christmas with Jason's extended Starke Family. Once again the day began with an outstanding brunch. All aunts, uncles and cousins were able to be there! The best part of the day was surprising Jason's grandparents with a special gift. Recently they moved their master bedroom downstairs which had been the den. The den had been filled with pictures of family members. When the den was changed into the bedroom the wall of pictures had to be taken down. This was very difficult for Gigi and Opa. So for Christmas their 3 children surprised them with a 15" digital frame. In addition to the frame everyone bought a flash drive and downloaded pictures of their family that they would want to share with Gigi and Opa. When it came to opening presents on Christmas Day, they received 9 individually wrapped flash drives. They were very confused and were wondering what the big joke was. After all the flash drives were opened, they were given the final gift, the digital frame. The reaction brought tears to everyone's eyes.

Merry Christmas!

I wish I could claim this as our own Christmas Tree, but it is actually Jason's parents tree. A week ago we got together with Mark & Chris, Angie, Dave & Collin to celebrate Christmas. It was a wonderful relaxing day. The day started with an awesome brunch...french toast, egg casserole, sausage, etc. The rest day was spent snacking, chatting, laughing, and opening gifts. Even though Baby Starke is not here yet, the baby sure got spoiled already from all of them!

28 Weeks

I knew the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas would go fast, but I had no idea that it would go THIS fast! It is a good thing I've been wrapping presents as I go, because there is no way I would be able to wrap everything at once at this point! I'm officially starting to "slow down". Students are constantly passing me in the hallway. I don't realize how slow I am moving until they zoom past me. And I have up to 12 more weeks to go! Basketball ends this week so I'll be able to come home right after work.

The baby has been moving a ton lately. Not only is the baby moving, but I'm able to feel distinct body parts as oppose to just movements. I went to Trans Siberian Orchestra last week with Jason's family. The baby was dancing the whole time! I'd hadn't felt so much continuous strong movement before. It was entertaining to say the least. The 2 1/2 hour show with out intermission did get a little long and I had to get up and move around a few times. It was the second time I had seen the show and I HIGHLY recommend it for everyone to try and go see at some point.

My last doctor's appointment (last wed) went well. The two interesting points of the appointment were: 1) The doctor told me I'm going to start going in for check ups every 2-3 weeks 2) The doctor told me to keep an eye out for pre-term labor symptoms. Although this was routine for the doctor to tell me, it kind of was a reality check for me that the time is drawing near!

**Next Dr.'s appointment on Monday (Glucose Test)

2nd Annual Day of baking w/ Sarah & Heather :)

This is the second year that Heather, Sarah and I have planned a weekend in December to bake different types of holiday goodies. Once again we had a wonderful time and impressed ourselves with what we did!

Thanksgiving Weekend Pictures Cont.

***Make sure to read the blog entry below for picture explanations :)

Thanksgiving Weekend in Minocqua

Here are some pictures that were taken over Thanksgiving. Most of them are my mom, sister's and I baking. Others are of family bonding over video games. The 3 days of cooking ended up being a "Comedy of Errors" for the following reasons:

• forgetting a cup of sugar
• forgetting if baking soda was added or not
• the taco sauce lid not on all the way
• peanut butter cookie dough rolling off the pan onto the bottom of the oven
• Oven is turned off to get all the cookie dough out, not turned back on (unknowingly) and us wondering why the cookies aren't baking completely?? :)
• These are only a few!

The picture with Melissa with her hands on my belly and the two of us laughing hysterically is because the picture was suppose to have Tricia on the other side, but as my mom was taking the picture Baby Starke kicked Tricia and she freaked out and ran away!

For those of you who do not know, my dad cooks Thanksgiving dinner at the local church. The rest of us help out during the days before and day of making sure everything is ready. Thanksgiving Day we all sign up for specific jobs (i.e. pouring coffee, clearing tables, serving line, dishes) and help out. We make sure that at a certain time all of us stop "working" and sit down for Thanksgiving Dinner together. This year my dad served 350 at the church and there were 100 deliveries for home bound people. The 450 people include hunters, widows/widowers, those who cannot afford a meal, those who want Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving & family members are coming until Saturday, those who do not want to do the work a Thanksgiving meal takes, those who are alone and do not want to spend Thanksgiving alone, etc. It is a real mix of people. It was neat to have all 7 of us there helping this year :).