Okay, so two weekends ago, Noah and I went to Wausau to meet Amber, our newest little niece. She was not quite six weeks old when we saw her, and cute as a button, of course. Tim is a great daddy, and is already wrapped tightly around her littlest little finger. Mommy Marcy is a little high-strung, I think, but I guess I've always thought that about her. I know she wants to be in charge of her own kid, but I thought she put the kibosh down on Grandma and Grandpa a little hard. They raised kids too, you know?

Anyway, I loved seeing Tim. And Mom and Dad were adorable, and are so excited about their granddaughter. The shower was a little hard. I won't go into too many gory details. God is great, blah blah blah, babies are wonderful but dirty sinners all the same, blah blah blah. Marcy wasn't grateful enough for me, and the pictures of Andy...I lost it a bit. But at the end Noah came in and they were all so nice to him. And he and Dad had some bonding time during the shower, which is cool.

So little Amber was a little fussy all day, having had her schedule thrown all off by a long car trip and the baby shower. Marcy kept trying to convince me she wasn't always like this. She a baby! It's okay to cry. Anyway, Auntie Mae (as I was once known, many moons ago) got her to go to sleep. Noah came up to me while I was holding her and whispered, "That's a good accessory on you." I almost started crying. Mom and Dad made comments too. Not too much longer now....

Overall, a good visit.

Then Sunday was our one year anniversary. We started the celebration by sleeping late, and then we hung out on the couch and watched the Vikings game and eventually had a bit of a nap. Then we got all dressed and went to see Disney on Ice!! It was so cool! The skaters are so good, and I love DIsney all the time anyway, and they had a section on It's a Small World, which was cool because that was under renovation when we went to DisneyWorld this summer and I was so disappointed. So the ice show almost made up for it...they even had animatronic people and animals on these crazy ice carts, because it wouldn't be Disney without those, you know.

Then we had dinner at Murray's: The BEST steak restaurant in the twin cities. One of those places that, when people hear that you are going they say, "Oh that is so good!!," and when I said "I've heard that, but this is my first time going," they respond with "I've never been there either." The place lives on its reputation. Which is true. Every word. We ordered their specialty...a silver butter knofe steak for two. The best steak I have ever eaten. Seriously. Wow.

I was so excited to give Noah his present and he loved it, so that's cool. He gave me a writer's kit, with three cool books, a writing tablet, pens and chocolate. He kicks ass!!

Yesterday we went to the Mall of America and did ALL of our Christmas shopping. Well, minus the Bright family, which we had already done. But everyone else got done. In nine hours. We did everyone else, brought the bags out to the car, and went back in to shop for each other. And we made some bizarre rules for each other, so that made it more fun. So now all the presents are bought and I can't wait to give them!! I love Christmas!!