29wks, 6days

Today we finally had our house warming party. Shawn and I woke up at 9 and began five hours of preparation before guests were due to start showing up between 2-7. I had to cook (pizza, sufganiyot, popcorn, and cookies) plus clean the kitchen. He had to scrape up the dripped paint from last week's painting extravaganza (he and a friend got together and painted out living room, entrance area, and hallway, yay!). We had to return all the furniture to its rightful position, clear off excess crap from several book shelves, toss all the random stuff into what will be the nursery, including clearing a lot of stuff from our office (which is currently my SIL's bedroom), and try to clear up enough in our room so that it would be showable to guests (which eventually consisted of just tossing the piles of clothes on the far side of the bed and making the bed itself).

I made six pizzas (crust and sauce from scratch, mind you), two batches of popcorn, and tons of strawberry jelly-filled sufganiyot, plus Shawn made chocolate chip cookies (I was too busy with the pizza and passed the job off to him since he was the one who requested cookies in the first place). Shawn also cleaned the bathrooms and our porch (all of this was done with tons of help from Esther, my sister-in-law, who also ran a shopping trip and wrote a beautiful dvar torah).

My brother brought home made beers and apfelwein, my mother baked delicious zucchini bread, and my father took pictures to document the event. all in all, over a dozen friends and family showed up at various points throughout the day, though unfortunately not a single neighbor came by. I'm quite bummed about that, since they were really the reason we felt compelled to do this in the first place. Oh well, hopefully they all at least acknowledged the invitation and appreciated the fact that we had invited them into our home, even if they decided not to attend.

Oh, and since this really is a baby blog I suppose I should post something about the twins. As of Thursday morning at least they had both settled into a head down position! I'm not really sure they stayed there, since then I've felt kicking but also a ton of the rumbling movement I feel when they're rolling around in there. But I have another ultrasound this coming Thursday so I'll see if they're still in the same position. If they are, and they stay there, chances increase for a vaginal birth, which i would like very much.

In unrelated news, Shawn and I spent the weekend at a beautiful hotel at the Dead Sea (we found ourselves a great Chanukka deal). Just to make you all jealous, we spent December 26th swimming in the Dead Sea then laying in beach chairs under a cloudless sky, enjoying the hot sun and a slight breeze.