Christmas Traditions

J and I were talking today, and we are so excited to share our next Christmas with baby Matteo - it is hard to believe that he will be 10 months old at Christmas next year!  We'll have to think of some Christmas traditions that we can start with the baby.  Some of our Christmas traditions (that have been in the families for generations) are:

- decorating the tree the last weekend in November - its funny because we realized this year that our tree is too short for the cathedral ceilings in our home - hopefully we'll be able to find a tree boxing day this year - and when we eventually finish the basement  we can have a "kids tree" down there with all of the homemade ornaments (this is something that my parents when we were young).  Here is our tree this year (not great, but festive!).  The first pic is the tree in our new house (with 12 ft ceilings a 6.5 ft tree looks Charlie-Brownish)

This pic is the tree in our old house - no cathedral ceilings - the tree looks bigger, therefore - we need a bigger tree!!!

- attending Midnight Mass at St. Anne's in Tecumseh with my parents and sister (the church where I grew up, where we got married in 2006, and where our children will be baptized) - Father Couture's rendition of "Oh Holy Night" is not to be missed...Ha

- having a fish dinner on Christmas Eve with the Valente clan (it is a traditional Italian Christmas thing) at Nonna Donna's house - J just loves that baccala!

- Clementines in our stockings! (A "Maurina" Christmas tradition")

- Boxing day at my in-laws - with all the hustle and bustle of Christmas day - this is a nice relaxing day, just to focus on fun for the kids (10 in total, #11 on the way!)

There are some traditions that we'd like to start on our own, as we are becoming our own family unit now... here's some we'd like to do:
- pick out a special ornament for each Christmas

- bake cookies together and give away as gifts (we've already started this one!)

- read "T'was The Night Before Christmas" and the Christmas Bible Story on Christmas Eve to our kids

J and I are excited to start new family traditions with our new family!

Merry Christmas!

Those of you who know me know that Christmas is my favourite holiday. I did all of my traditional baking - with help from a couple of friends (M & Em) and J of course (who wanted to keep all the cookies for himself!).  Check out the finished product...  and some of our Christmas decor as a collage!...

Our Christmas Decor...

And Rocco of course, on Christmas Eve this year!  So cute!

Baby Shower - November 15th

My mom and mother in law threw me a wonderful baby shower brunch on November 15th.  We had a great time, and we were able to get so many nice little things for Matteo. I was truly amazed by the generosity of our family and friends!  My mom & sister helped to plan the details of the shower - they were truly amazing in making everything look so cute and adorable. Here is the cake and the invitations:

So many friends and family pitched in that day.  Kate baked up a storm - and made the most amazing blueberry coffee cake - I'm still thinking about it! Her mom also made some delish lemon & cherry tarts..yum!  Monique and Emily also helped baked some wonderful treats and made the most beautiful centrepieces. My sister in laws, Jenny and Melanie, also baked some wonderful treats. And my Nonna's baked some traditional Italian biscotti.  My cousin Lauren helped with making the favours, and said grace that day, and my cousin Erica helped to set up and get us organized!  My Aunt Jen and Aunt Sandy were also a huge help that day with setting up and taking down.  I am so lucky to have so many wonderful women in my life!

The sweet table with all those home baked goodies:

 

My mom (Nonna!), me and my sister (Aunt Katharen!)

 

My cousin Lauren, Aunt Jen and me

The next pictures are :

Cousin Erica, me and Aunt Sandy

Monique, me and Emily

Nonna Navina, me, and Nonna Donna

 

 

It was such a wonderful day, and I am so blessed to have so many loving people in my life!  Thank you to everyone who helped that day, and to all of the women that came to help me celebrate little Matteo, who is on the way!

Baby M's name...

Jason and I decided on a name a while back, but I wanted to document it here.  After looking through some of the more popular boy names (Carter, Ethan, Noah), we decided to go with a traditional Italian name (which I would have thought is NMS, but we just love this name)....

Matteo Anthony Maurina

Matteo means "gift from God" and his feast day is September 21st.  St. Matteo (Matthew) is the patron saint of accountants and stock brokers - very interesting!

It was so funny, when we told my dad - he was absolutely enamoured with the name - "I love that name!".  Also, Antonio (Tony) is my Nonno's (my dad's dad) name, and everytime we see him, he asks how "little Tony" is doing!  Our families are so excited for the arrival of Little Matteo - he will definitely be loved and spoiled!

The Nursery and other baby goodies...

So, for those of you who know me well, you know that I love home decor. HomeSense is my Mecca, the definite Holy Grail for Jenn... so of course, the nursery has been a big deal for me. For some reason, I was thinking that our baby would be a girl (maybe because my family is pretty much all women), so I had visions of pink... but when we found out we were having a boy - I had to drastically change my perspective.

So, for the little man's nursery, we've decided to go with a muted Tiffany Blue and Chocolate Brown theme - more of a mod nursery, with polka dots, and some stripes - with lime green and cream accents -check out the inspiration pictures:

Our crib (Graco Lauren crib - generously purchased by my MIL and FIL - for grandbaby #11!!!)

Our dresser and hutch (currently not purchased - but we will buy it after Christmas - maybe we can wish for a sale...). Also, I plan to change out the knobs to either a pewter or glass - the wood knobs are just NMS

Our rocker (a generous gift from my Aunt Sandy & Uncle David - it is so comfy too!)






The bedding (a gift from two great girlfriends - Monique & Em - who are my home decor shopping companions)! - Note - the bedding is the Oxygen set from Babies R' Us



The wall colour... Ocean Kiss by Behr (my mom and dad painted Baby M's Room for us, as well as our two bathrooms and laundry room - thanks M &D!!!) - the colour is third from the top in the first left hand row


We also tried to coordinate our swing (a gift from my BFF Kate and her hubby Jeff - I can't wait to use it) and stroller (from my Nonna and Nonno) with the nursery decor - as matching is important....

The swing... - it is blue with brown/cream polka dots






The stroller system- again another blue/brown/green theme - the close-up of the pattern shows a better view....


Also, I hate plastic high chairs - so we came across this Eddie Bauer high chair (which my Nonna D. bought for us) that matches our dining room table (a dark cherry) - the thing that I love best is that the tray is dishwasher safe and the seat pad is machine washable - definitely no gross hidden crumbs and sticky things like those plastic chairs!


Our last piece of furniture that we recieved will be going in our Master Bedroom (as we are upstairs and the nursery is on the main level). This bassinet is so adorable, and my Uncle Pete and Aunt Jen so generously purchased it for us!





And... my favourite part - we ordered this tree from etsy - with cream, blue, and lime green dots - it is about 6 ft tall... it is from etsy seller decalfarm - I can't wait till it comes in!!!




Once the nursery is done, I'll post pictures of it - hopefully before Baby M gets here!

24 week ultrasound

The third ultrasound...

I have been having so much trouble gaining weight, that Dr. P sent me for a third ultrasound at 24 weeks- to make sure that Baby M is growing, as well as to do an in-depth study of his heart - the good news is - he is huge (what did you expect - with J being 6'4"??) - measuring 1-2 weeks big - and the projected due date as of now is Jan 31st! They reconfirmed the gender and he is definitely all boy!!! Check these out!


This ultrasound was probably the most stressful - for the first 45 minutes or so. The tech would not let me empty my bladder - which (if you know me at all) is a HUGE deal! Also, she wouldn't show me the screen or confirm that indeed Baby M was in there - so of course, I thought "the baby disappeared!" and was crazy-worried.

Needless to say, Baby M was (and is) fine - his heart is healthy and he is healthy and was jumping around, and my mom got to see him for the first time. After my mom came in, the lady went crazy and took a million pictures (these are only a few) - and did a complete turnaround in personality! After that it was a good experience - and I got to see the baby one more time!



You can definitely see his "boy bits" in the picture above - my mom laughed hysterically! I had to call J as soon as I got home and tell him about his son's big kahunas! He was a proud papa that day - ha!

It was so funny - when we were talking (my mom and I) during the ultrasound, Baby M would turn his face towards us - its like he knew who we were! I can't wait to meet the little guy.

20 week ultrasound

Sorry this post is so late coming - it has been crazy at school - I am now on maternity leave (more about that later), but check out Baby M's 20 week ultrasound post. This is where we found out that we were having a boy! (You can't tell from these pictures...but check out the other ultrasound post - definitely a boy!).

13 week ultrasound

Check out the 13 week ultrasound pictures! The baby was doing backflips during the whole thing (no wonder why I haven't been feeling well!). The first picture shows baby waving "hello"

The next three were taken in succession - no gender yet - but I have a feeling its a girl. J has a feeling its a boy - I guess we'll have to wait and see!