Hey everybody,
I just thought you'd like to see what all those Christmas cookies has done to my belly. Here is a picture of girly and me.

I also took a picture of the flowers you sent. They are so beautiful! The room I took them in is the "office." The room I also would now like to paint pink!

Dad and Mom, I'm praying that you'll be feeling better soon!

I love you.

Danielle

By the way, the link I told you about Mom and Lindsey is Smartflix.com (I'm not sure if you capitalize it or not though)

Thank you Mom and Dad for the beautiful flowers! I was not expecting them...I was just surprised by the disgruntled looking delivery lady at my door. I almost felt I should take a flower out and gave it to her, hoping that might help whatever made her day go sour!

The flowers are sitting on my the coffee table. I'll take a picture of them and send it maybe tomorrow. It is raining, cold, and blustery here today making it too hard to take nice pictures. Thank you so much! They brightened the day and they're almost as good as getting a hug from you!

Now I have the family picture up on the fridge and the up north picture up too. We nearly polished off the cookies already. By the way Mom, the cranberry bread was the best! It wasn't too sweet, it was a little tangy, nutty, and had a yummy orange hint to it. Thank you for sharing your butter cookies with us Dad. I am feeding "girly" well. I hope she won't go into a fiesty frenzy when I attempt to cut out most sugar after the new year...


Hope you are feeling better Dad. Did you get the espresso machine working yet? A really yummy treat is an esspresso in frothy cream.

Love you guys,

Danielle

Ps. Cyrus, I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to you on Christmas.

Merry Christmas!
Can you believe that Nemo is a girl?

Merry 2 days before Christmas!
I just sent off your Christmas card and a package with Grandma Gust's gift basket in it. There is a picture of us on the front of the card. I hardly look pregnant at all, which is REALLy deceiving. I think I look much more pregnant, and feel as though I have a fight going on inside my belly constantly! Oh, We received the packages you sent (all three)! Thank you so much. It means so much just to have something from home here for Christmas.
Mom and I talked on Thursday when Missy, Kaylea, and Cyrus went to go pick up Emmy (Merry Christmas hon!). She gave me the recipe for meatballs so we can have meatballs on Christmas Eve, and we got to talk for awhile.
I'll call on Christmas. If you would like to talk to me, I'd like to talk to each of you. If you don't want to, please don't feel like you have to talk. We can talk later too. I have some more pictures I want to post. Maybe I'll get to post some more pictures for you tomorrow.
Did you get your gift? I hope you will like it. I only have one more thing I want to send to you for Christmas. Emmy, your gift is coming as well. You have a part in the family gift too, but I know you just can't take that gift home with you...
I love you, gotta go
Danielle

Merry 2 days before Christmas!
I just sent off your Christmas card and a package with Grandma Gust's gift basket in it. There is a picture of us on the front of the card. I hardly look pregnant at all, which is REALLy deceiving. I think I look much more pregnant, and feel as though I have a fight going on inside my belly constantly! Oh, We received the packages you sent (all three)! Thank you so much. It means so much just to have something from home here for Christmas.
Mom and I talked on Thursday when Missy, Kaylea, and Cyrus went to go pick up Emmy (Merry Christmas hon!). She gave me the recipe for meatballs so we can have meatballs on Christmas Eve, and we got to talk for awhile.
I'll call on Christmas. If you would like to talk to me, I'd like to talk to each of you. If you don't want to, please don't feel like you have to talk. We can talk later too. I have some more pictures I want to post. Maybe I'll get to post some more pictures for you tomorrow.
Did you get your gift? I hope you will like it. I only have one more thing I want to send to you for Christmas. Emmy, your gift is coming as well. You have a part in the family gift too, but I know you just can't take that gift home with you...
I love you, gotta go
Danielle

Hey guys!

I had to write because I just made Russian Tea Cakes. I just couldn't hold out any longer! They are my favorite Christmas cookie that we make. As I was making them, I was wishing I had the fruit tray of ours to serve them on and the cute Christmas cookie tins to store them in later. I would even love to have a chilly front porch to store all our food in, and most of all I wish I was there to share them over coffee with each of you. I try not to think about it too often. I miss you. I wish I was driving up Breezy Point's long snow covered driveway to see the lights in the window and everybody waiting inside.

We are staying here in San Diego for Christmas. Matt has duty here on Christmas day and he can't go beyond a 600 mile radius during the holidays. That is mostly because his class will be finishing up in the training squadron soon and they are on top priority to get done as quickly as possible. So, no thanks to them, they're definately keeping us on a tight rope. In spite of it all, we're hoping to make it fun. Do you remember that we're going to find out if Nemo is a boy or a girl on Christmas morning? I once thought that sounded fun, but I'm getting more nervous about finding out:)We had Matt's brother and his family here for Thanksgiving. They have two boys and a girl so far. Let me tell you, that little girl looked like an angel compared to those boys! And, believe me, the boys were not without a good deal of discipline! Hopefully, I'll call you soon after we find out on Christmas morning so then you can have something to be scared about too:)!!!!

Is Grandma Gust coming for Christmas? I have a little Christmas gift for her, but I don't have an address for her. Could someone send it to me?

Dad, I bought a Christmas Little House in The Prairie Book for a little girl I babysit out here. It reminded me of sitting on your lap with my pjs on and pink curlers in my hair. If we were really good, we'd get a malt or a rootbeer float after.

Well, I have to get some sleep. I'll post a picture of Lenny and Yeti and a picture of our first Christmas Tree. It makes things so cozy inside and I try to imagine it is snowing outside too. Yeti probably does too, only year round. He is a poor sled dog stuck in the desert.

Well, I'm off to bed.

I love you guys very much.

Danielle





Is Grandma going to be home with you for Christmas? I have a present for her. Could someone send me her address? Or, I could just send it there if she'll be there too.

Whew! I'm sorry I have been neglecting this little spot recently. Matt's brother's family was here last weekend (well, till Tuesday this week) and it seems I have had babysitting, cleaning, or some other thing to rush off to the whole rest of the week.

We went to a Christmas festival in Balboa Park yesterday night. The whole park was lit up and bustling with festively dressed people enjoying hot cocoa, mini doughnuts, less traditional things like indian tacos and lots of live Christmas music (even if it was Hawaiin style) If you look it up on the internet you can see what that place is. Or I can just tell you that it is the kind of the cultural center of the city. There are beautiful fountains and a whole bunch of museums. We didn't get around to checking out the insides of the museums yet, but we plan to. The intricate spanish architecture on the outside though is quite spectacular!

I have my third baby check up coming up on Wed. I have seen my stomach moving recently! It is so sweet to see a little life growing inside me. I wish you all could feel the baby kick!

I love you all and miss you. I'm sorry I didn't specifically ask to talk to each of you on Thanksgiving. I wish I had now. I hope all went well at Gust Christmas!

Schmells