Christmas Letter 2009

It's been quite the year for the Burnham family....new house and a new baby on the way!

Eli has certainly changed and grown, too. Over the past year we've celebrated his first birthday and watched him change from a baby boy to a toddler.....he now is talking all the time and becoming more and more independent. He loves spending time with his "Na-nas" and "Bumpa", and he also is learning more and more ways to torture our dog, Sadie. Every day, it seems, Jay and I look at each other and laugh at something new Eli has learned to say, do, or repeat. It's nice, too, because Eli now has friends that he plays with and talks about--most of them from daycare. We are still so lucky to have a great daycare situation with Amy in Becker, who is an amazing person! I don't know what we'd do without her, or should I say, I don't know how I'd parent without her....

In other news, last spring Jay and I took a trip to Norfolk, Virginia for a spring break. We visited Virginia Beach and drove down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was a nice getaway, even though the weather wasn't really "beach weather." If ever you find yourself in Norfolk, we recommend you hunt down a little dive called Hell's Kitchen in downtown Norfolk and order the crab cakes. They are a-mazing!

The new house has, overall, been a wonderful change in our lives. We have so much more room, a much bigger yard, and the house provides us with storage space galore! I'm not sure if these pictures will do it justice, but we do really love all of the extra room we have. We even hosted the Burnham Thanksgiving this year and could all fit comfortably on the main level. However, the bad part has been this fall Jay fought the yard with cutting the grass and cleaning up the leaves. I quickly realized the sadness of having four toilets to clean now versus the two I wrangled before. And with the miles of carpeting, keeping our vacuum in working order is a must! For those of you who have been to our house, we hope you can come over again. For those of you who have yet to visit, come on over and see us!

Baby Burnham #2 is due mid-March, and this pregnancy has been a little different than the first. I experienced more morning and evening sickness with this baby than with Eli--so much so that I asked for some medical prescription relief at week 14 so I could actually function at work. We also experienced a little scare early on with an abnormal screening test result, but after multiple ultrasounds, it looks like all is well so far. The gender of the baby will be a surprise until delivery day, but getting an ultrasound every month is providing more and more temptation for us to find out. Bets anyone, if it's a boy or a girl?

We've been fortunate in more ways than we can count, and we hope that you and your family are as happy and healthy as we are. Happy holidays!