Santa Claus is Coming to Town

It's already December and Christmas season!!!

The year went by so fast and we are in the final days of 2011.

Here in the US the holiday season starts with Thanksgiving, this year, like the last one, the Briese Family invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them. We all brought appetizers, side dishes and desserts, and Bobby and Lesley cooked the turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole and two pumpkin pies. We had a great time with all our friends and ate all the delicious food.

After Thanksgiving dinner comes Black Friday, this year the stores opened at 12am instead of 4 or 5 am, so we decided to give it a try. Borja and I went first to Target, at the time we got there it was funny to see everyone coming out from the store with the same TV and there was a long line to get in, so we went to Best Buy where the line was worse than the one in Target. We didn't have anything important to buy so we went back home. On Friday morning we went shopping to Target, Babies R'Us, Toys R'Us, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Best Buy and the Mall, but we didn't buy that much.

This year the first snow was on November 30th but it didn't last, after two days all the snow was gone, and two days ago snowed a little bit more, but nothing like last year.

On November 30th I also had my second prenatal appointment, it was a regular checkup but I heard the baby's heart for the first time :). On December 22nd we'll hopefully find out if it is a girl or boy!!!

This weekend we are having our Posada, this year I'm making some "ponche" but let see how it goes because they don't have all the ingredients I need, so I'll have to improvise.

We are also having a Gift Exchange with the Vino Latino girls on the 14th and I'm leaving to Mexico on the 15th.

Here are some photos of the Thanksgiving dinner, some Christmas decorations and also the other day we used our new tripod in the night during the snow! Hope you enjoy them.

Thanksgiving

Christmas Decoration

Snow!

Surprise!!!

I'm with child!!! hehe since I watched The Tudors I've always wanted to say that, but yes...I am pregnant!

I was a few days late so I took the home pregnancy test on September 30th and as you can see it was positive!!! That same day our friend Betty had her baby boy so I was trying to decide how I was going to tell Borja the news. I went to the University of Michigan store to get a present for Betty's baby and there I saw the M pacifiers, and I bought them for our baby. When I got back form the store I gave Borja the bag with the pacifiers and the positive pregnancy test.

I didn't know what to do next so I called Jessica (who is expecting her second baby) and asked her what to do. Borja took me to the Health Service Center to take another test and once that test came out positive we started telling our family and closest friends.

I also made my first prenatal appointment which was until today. The first days I couldn't believe I was pregnant, but then the symptoms started to appear. I've been feeling great but I'm tired all the time and some food gives me nausea, but nothing bad. I've also started reading some pregnancy books and webpages where they explain the changes in you and your baby week by week.

Finally today we went to the doctor and saw our baby for the first time!!! It's really exciting and makes it more real. Right now it is so tiny (he/she is the size of a blueberry) but we already saw the little heart beating.

My next appointment is until November 30th, so now I just have to take care of myself and the baby and wait for the next visit.

Back in Ann Arbor

We've been back in Ann Arbor for a month.

We got back the day of  the 1st Michigan football game so after we arrived we went to Bobby and Lesley's house. It was nice seeing all our friends after almost 4 months :), we really missed them during the summer. All the kids grew up sooo much, Jimena is now walking, Emilio is crawling and almost walking, Maggie is a 5 month baby (the last time we saw her she was a newborn) and Ava is talking a lot.

The first two weeks I helped Theresa by babysitting Elena 3 times a week. She is so sweet and so intelligent! She is one year and 9 months old and she talks a lot for her age, she understands English and Spanish and repeats almost everything you say.

During this month we also have met some of the new partners, all of them are really nice. There are a lot of new latinas so our Vino Latino group is getting bigger! we have girls from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Cuba, Brazil and Mexico. 

On our second week here I went to 2 baby showers, one was for Betty (from Monterrey) with our American friends and the other one was organized by the 1st year partners and it was for Betty (Monterrey), Silvana (Peru) and Hafsa (USA) and there I met a lot of the new partners from Latin America, India, Japan and USA.

For our Independence Day celebration all the Mexicans got together at Jessica's house, each of us cooked a Mexican dish and drank some tequila hehe. We ate some tacos, burritos, shredded meat with mole, frijoles, flan and arroz con leche....everything tasted great!

On the 3rd week I organized an International potluck, as some of you know I'm the International Chair of the Ross Partners Club so this was my first event. Everyone brought a dish from their country to share, so we ate some delicious food and had a great time. 

Two weekends ago we also invited John, Seth (Borja's classmates) and Seth's girlfriend to have dinner at our house, I cooked shredded meat with mole, beans and red rice because they wanted a typical Mexican dinner and they really liked it.

So as you can see we have been really busy, cooking, partners activities, getting together with friends, watching kids and enjoying a great weather in Ann Arbor.

There is a surprise for my next post (October 19th) so keep reading it! :)

International Potluck: 

Karina's Birthday:

Dinner with John, Seth and Seth's girlfriend:

Betty, Silvana and Hafsa's Babyshower:

Last week in Mountain View and my parent's visit

Borja's last day at Google was on August 19th and that same day my parent's arrived to California.

The next day we stayed near Mountain View, we went to Stanford University in Palo Alto,CA and then to a shopping mall near the university. After that we went to Santana Row in San Jose, CA, there we did some window shopping and we sat at a Mexican restaurant/bar with live music for a while.

On Sunday there was a very prestigious auto show in Pebble Beach called Concours d'Elegance, so we drove early in the morning to Carmel and after we dropped Borja and my dad in the auto show my mom and I went to Point of Lobos National Park and then we walked around Carmel. Around 5pm we picked up Borja and my dad from Pebble Beach and went back to Mountain View.

The next two days we went to San Francisco, we drove a part of  the 49 Mile Scenic Drive and we went to the Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate, Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, Union Square, Finance District, Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Gardens and Alamo Square.

Wednesday was shopping day so we went back to the Stanford Shopping Mall and then to a big mall in San Jose. We were supposed to have dinner that day in Santana Row but we were so tired from shopping that we went early to bed.

Thursday and Friday we went to Yosemite National Park, which is about 4 hours from Mountain View. This park is amazing, I loved it. We where most of the time in the Yosemite Valley, walked to two waterfalls, we saw El Capitan and the Half Dome, and just enjoyed nature! We went to the hotel before dust and had dinner there. On Friday in the morning after breakfast we went to Mariposa Grove, that is where all the Giant Sequoias are, and stayed there for almost 3 hours. Then we had lunch in the Wawona Hotel, which is inside the park. After lunch we drove back to Mountain view and started packing.

The next day my parents flew back to Mexico so I drove them to the airport while Borja stayed at home packing and we just packed all day and got ready for our first rod trip day.

Lombard Street

Palace of Fine Arts

Alamo Square

Alamo Square looking at the Painted Laides

Great idea!! To put a plant in a shoe hehe

Conservatory of Flowers at the Golden Gate park:

Japanese Gardens at the Golden Gate Park (here is where the fortune cookies were invented):

Yosemite National Park:

Yosemite Valley

El Capitan

Bridalveil Fall

Practicing yoga at Yosemite Fall

The Half Dome

The dog posing for a picture!

Tunnel View

Sequoia root

Admiring the giant Sequoia

Inside the Sequoia