After Christmas and 36 weeks

I had a lovely last week of Advent on vacation! I just took everything slow, enjoyed time to read, sleep-in, cook, and spend time with Dylan. We did our Christmas dinner shopping early, early, so we completely avoided all crowds - no last minute runs to the store or anything. We made it a quiet Christmas just the two (3) of us. On Christmas Eve we took a nice walk in Fort Snelling State Park along the Mississippi before having a potato pancake dinner before getting ready for midnight Mass at St. Paul's Cathedral - our first Christmas in MN (and no snow!!) Christmas Day started slowly, and we just enjoyed hanging out, skyped with our missed families, and had a lovely dinner for 2. We smiled all through dinner, though, because we hadn't done it up so much for just the two of us before =). All in all, I think Pea had a lovely Christmas ... next Christmas won't be with Pea, rather with ____, whoever this baby turns out to be! Here are a few shots from those events:
Mississippi River

 going to Mass

 Christmas Day dinner =)

 Oh, yeah! And Boxing Day bowling, the Braud (and now Knoll...) tradition =). I whooped D with a 112 and a 162! But who's keeping score ;)...

We are really on the countdown now - just four weeks until the due date but only 2 until "pre-term" is passed. It's hard to convey via blogging, but we're pretty excited to meet this little one and about all the unknowns coming up. We love adventures!
36 weeks: