December 2009 A Very Special Christmas Present

What a December! Christmas and the arrival of Canaan Jack Murphy!

The weekend before Christmas, we had Erin and Eric, Julie and Ross to our house for our Christmas celebration - of course Jessie and BJ were busy with the little guy and couldn't make it. My mom was also under the weather so it was a smaller than usual. We saw It's a Wonderful Life and Jen and Mike came on Sunday to use the extra tickets. We had a fun, casual dinner. On Monday morning we opened our presents and on Monday afternoon, Ross made spinach/goat cheese stuffed chicken. It was awesome! Next up will be something Italian with the new pasta machine! I continued the tradition Peggy started when she gave me the Pandora present at Jessie's baby shower by giving a bracelet to each of my girls. Kris will get hers when we see each other next. Eric feels like a kid again playing PS3 games. On Tuesday, Peggy came up and Julie, Peggy and I went to St. Joe to look at wedding venues because Jen and Mike just got engaged. So... we will have 2 weddings at least in 2010. As usual, Julie made a great "Santa" but Oliver stole the show!

December 8th was a very big day because that was the day that Canaan Jack Murphy joined us! Jessie had a roller coaster pregnancy - on bed rest since her 22d week - over 10,000 contractions (that has to be a world's record!), and with God's grace, made it to her 39th week! We prayed so hard that Canaan would wait until at least the 30th week and have at least 3-4 pounds on him when we made his entrance. Our little miracle weighed in at 7 pounds 2 ounces! We were so very thankful! Here are some pictures from Jessie's pregnancy and that wonderful birthday!

On the way to NC, we stopped at Jessie and BJ's so John could meet Canaan. He is such a love! Here is Canaan's Christmas picture. As you can see, John is trying out a beard...not sure about that yet... I think Jessie is a wee bit tired with all the night feedings.

The year ends in NC...

Right now we are in NC - it is COLD down here - just like it is all over the country - they even got snow in Dallas! It's been in the 40's mostly but dipping into the 20's at night. The furnace is having a hard time keeping up! Mark and Tom are in DC with Peggy and Gene so we didn't get a chance to see them. The arts are mostly dormant over the holidays. We did see a very good production of Hair and tried out a new restaurant called Circa 1922. We celebrated John's 55th and coincidentally, the day he officially became eligible for early retirement! Mostly we've been taking it easy, walking 2-3 miles in the downtown. One day we did make it to Wrightsville Beach for a nice walk. Happy New Year (2010) everyone!