baby's first christmas

We had a rather subdued Christmas here in New England. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day at my parent's house and had a nice quiet time with them. Christmas day I came down with the flu, and Phil showed signs of the same, so we weren't very much fun to be around. But we had a nice time anyway - Phil got a couple of adorable baby bibs, one of which he wore proudly for about 30 seconds, and my mom got me our first pack of onesies! :0)

This was a lame attempt to allow you all to see the beginnings of a belly - There isn't much to see - It's not what it used to be, but it's also not much of a belly either - It looks more like i had too much salt the day before, not like i'm carrying a tiny baby.

And Jasper pretty much just sat around with goggles on the whole time, trying to act cool.

a family effort

Though not nearly everyone is pictured here, following are a few pictures from today's Ryan Family Christmas gathering. Lots of laughs (lots of jokers) - It was good to be together again.

Mom and Dad (Memere and Papa :0)

Grammy (the biggest trouble-maker of us all)


Auntie Laura attempting, in vain, to hide the much-coveted brown rolls

Sorry people, you're not missing anything - there's no belly yet - i'll let you know.

Phil is proud of his Yankee-Swap jam...but only for a minute.

And Auntie Linda not so proud of her Yankee-Swap "Anti-Monkey-Butt-Powder"...but only for a minute.

flagging appetite

For the past 2 months my weak system has been rejecting nearly everything it is introduced to - Sometimes the mere mention of food will send me to any remotely appropriate recepticle. Through all of it, i've been trying to keep my sense of humour - Here is sometimes how i see food these days - I'm looking through some distorted, nausea glasses - Welcome to my temporary world.