Baby Gomelsky: A Look Back at Christmas 2008 & New Year's Eve

Vladi and I had a wonderful Christmas weekend at home in Kentucky. It was quite an adventure driving home and spending the night at a hotel, but we love adventures and we got home safely. The year I met Vladi, I remember that being the first Christmas that I did not care about the material things. He and I met in November and he was my Christmas present forever. This year, I did not ask for anything. I even suggested not giving presents. The memories that Vladi and I have made this Holiday season (Thanksgiving-New Years) have been priceless (future blog). But Vladi said let's get something so I am sure he was happy with "TomTom" our new friend/GPS system and I adore my new Pandora bracelet that has a Christmas Tree charm with a gold star to always remind me of our last Christmas just the two of us. Our families also gave us wonderful presents that we needed/wanted but never told them that we needed/wanted. Haha I guess my mom knew that I needed a warm robe for the winter time since I wear hers when I come home.

This year we knew we had the best Christmas present every...our baby boy growing stronger and stronger each day inside of me. We found ultrasound ornament picture frames that we gave to our parents and my grandpa that read on the frame "Our Best Christmas Present Ever." Our ultrasound tech even printed small pics for us to put inside the frames.

Let's look back at Christmas 2008 Memories:

We went to Christmas Eve Mass at Good Shepard Catholic Church in Frankfort where we were married. My mom, Meredith, and Aunt Sara met us there (Dad was at work). I tell you, there was nothing but baby girls in church. During the Homily, the Priest said, "I am looking around for something very special. [he walked up to a family with the only baby boy that I had noticed] I have already spoken with his family and have permission to do this. [he picked up the little boy and said] This is Alexander."!!!!!!!!!! Vladi and I went crazy since that was what we were naming our little man. The Priest walked around with the baby and spoke about how Jesus was the size of this baby once and how we forget that he was human like us. It was a thought provoking Homily.

This year we spent Christmas Eve at Vladi's house in Frankfort. This is Boris and Natasha's cat, "Kisia" (kitty in russian). Natasha fixed a yummy dinner and we played durak (a Russian card game that means stupid~but whoever gets durak is also lucky in love). Well, of course the first few games we played, who ended up being "lucky in love"?? I did. But I finally started to win, is that good or not?

On Christmas morning, Vladi and I drove to my parent's house to see if Santa came. He did and we had a wonderful morning opening presents, drinking decaf coffee, and karaoking with my dad. My dad has an amazing Karaoke machine/equipment that looks awesome. The speakers are high in the air, he has the machine that puts the music in your octave, and he has the burner to record yourself. This is not a little stereo system, this is the Big Daddy of all machines. He is so cute, he even has an Asian rug underneath for a real concert feeling. Vladi and I made the Gomelsky Christmas Album. Look for it in stores. This is the bib that Meredith got Vladi. No, I'm kidding, it's for Alexander. Doesn't Alexander's Daddy look cute modeling the UK bib?

Christmas Day afternoon, my Family went to the Biagi house (Uncle Stephen and Aunt Marie's) for our Family Christmas. I love going there for Christmas and spending time with everyone. It was wonderful hearing about how everyone is doing. My cousin Kate is getting married in June, my cousin Megan just got married, and all my other cousins are having great adventures in their lives also. I received a soft nightgown, UK entertaining serve ware, and a pickle ornament. Let me explain the pickle ornament (I want to see comments if you have heard of this or not)... On Christmas, you hide the pickle on the tree, the first person to find the pickle gets to open a special present or the first present. I was so happy to get this because I have heard so much about the "pickle ornament" while living in the Cleveland area. My family had not heard of this except my Uncle Robert and Aunt Marcia who gave us the pickle. Here is a picture of the pickle. It is awesome and I LOVE collecting ornaments! Plus, Vladi and I wanted to start this tradition next year...perfect timing.

(My cousins: front/lft Laura, Shelley, Marty, Rachel, back/lft~Meredith (my sister), Kate, Megan, Stephanie, and Me! Michael was visiting his in-laws and Richard is a Marine and is stationed in Japan. We are so proud of him and keep him in our thoughts and prayers).

On Friday, Vladi's parents and my Grandpa Cook came to my parent's house for dinner and fun times. My Grandpa and Dad karaoked before Vladi's parents came. My Grandpa is good. He was singing George Strait songs and I see where my dad got his talent. When Vladi's parents came, they were entertained with Vladi and me singing "Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer" with my Dad and Grandpa joining in. It was so funny. And then my Dad made me sing, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina." I must say that I did pretty good. Watch out EVITA on Broadway here comes SB! haha

On a side note: [I hope my Spanish III friends appreciate me singing "Don't Cry For Me Argentina." I remember my Senior Year of High School giving a speech in Spanish class about Evita. I made my friends hold up signs that read "Viva Evita!" And I acted like Evita. I think I got confused about the movie and Evita's real life. That was the worst speech I ever gave and I was so embarrassed afterwards because the speech went on and on...in spanish!]

On Saturday, Meredith and my Mom hosted a Bridal Shower for my cousin Kate that is getting married in June. It was so much fun! We played a lot of fun games... one in particular was tearing paper to look like what we thought Kate's gown may look like. Rachel's torn paper dress won! After the shower, my tired, wonderful Mom drove me to Louisville so that I could eat a fish sandwich at the Fishery in St. Matthews. Oh, it was everything that I had dreamed of! (I have not eaten fish the whole pregnancy with the scare of mercury even though some fish is ok. My Dr. said I could eat my favorite fish sandwich) Then we went by Pottery Barn for Kids because I wanted to see the new line of bedding that I saw in the magazine and to see if they still had any bedding left that I had loved from last season. Well, I saw the bumper that I had been imagining in my head but did not know exist. We bought that and when we got back to Cleveland, I called local stores and got the quilt!!!! WOOHOO! I love our bedding! We will be able to do so many themes with it: ABCs, Sports, Transportation, Animals, Colors, and more! It has everything that I wanted~ elephants, ABCs, light blue/green, gingham, transportation, and more.

When we left to go back to Ohio on Sunday, we stopped in Cincinnati to meet with Dave, Julie, and Elizabeth at IHop. It was so good seeing all of them. Julie's tummy is showing and we are so excited about our little ones. We had not seen Elizabeth for a long time since she lives in South Carolina. Hopefully she will be able to stop by our apt. next summer on her way to her sister's wedding in Pennsylvania. When we left IHop, we ran over to the Container Store. This place has a container for everything!!!!! I can't wait to build a house one day and organize with the stuff from this store. We got a shelf/storage unit that will hold the baby's bottles/nipples, etc. We don't have much cabinet space so this will be so helpful.

How was your New Year's Eve? We ate dinner at an Irish pub and rang in the New Year for Ireland with a waiter walking around the restaurant ringing a bell. When we got home, it was nice and low key. We watched Ryan Seacrest and I was happy to see that Dick Clark looked so good. I can't imagine being in New York on New Year's Eve. You cannot go to the bathroom so what do people do?