It feels so good to have my class done.  I have one lesson plan to modify, and a self evaluation, but whoop! I’m done.  I am now 25% done with my master’s degree. Yeeehaaaww. (And, of course, part of my coursework ended up involving blogs. Heh.)

So, it’s month 6 of the babyquest.  This is the month we step up to every-other-day GOF.  I explained it at Digs, but I thought I’d mention it here, too. I know that there are only a few days in the month where one can get pregnant, but we’re doing the EOD method for a while.  And I thought it would be stressful, being so scheduled, but in fact it feels much more freeing. Before, with the OPKs and such, maybe there was MORE stress put in on those Very Important GOF Days, and now, well, EOD will give it a sense of baseline importance, not so much "THIS is the day."

It’s hard to explain, Hrmph.

I’ve got most of my holiday shopping done, all that’s left is to do is get stocking stuffers for Dave, basically.  My sister has shipped her package of gifts for all of us to my house, and I shipped hers today. I can’t remember when she was home for Christmas last — maybe ’01? — but I do miss her at this time of year.  I’ve never been away for Christmas (when I lived in PHX, I flew back and surprised my mom on the 23rd) so I notice her absence.  Of course, now we’re into new traditions, and I am so excited to be having Christmas in my very own house this year.

The last time we had Christmas NOT at my house was in 1985, because my mother’s mother was dying.  We left on the 23rd and drove straight through to Western NY, and my Nana was in the hospital in Erie by that time.  She had a little white plastic table top tree, maybe 12", with blue metal balls for ornaments, and my sister still believed in Santa, so my parents had to pull off Santa finding Nana’s house that had no fireplace and a plastic tree. We also spent Christmas in Texas with my other grandparents when I was 6, but other than that, every Christmas morning has been held at the lake, with the big brunch following.

This year, my parents will stay with us.  They’ve said they’ll probably alternate Christmasses between here and Beaver Canyon (hee) from now on, because the brunch is too much work, and the people that used to come, don’t, and those that do aren’t close to us.  I’m trying to think of some way to keep that tradition, but I don’t know of anyone that doesn’t have family to spend the day with. (The original brunch was because my parents were a young couple with no family around, and there were lots of other people in their situation, so it became a regular event for people far from ‘home.’)

Dave and I will go to Christmas Eve at his mother’s studio apartment (I cannot even IMAGINE how it will be with 2 babies and toddler there this year, eek) and my folks will stay here.  The next morning we’ll open gifts, and then what? Just hang out, I guess. Make breakfast, I guess.

I feel like this is a weird stage of life for me.  (Total segue, I know)  I feel like I’m too old for my friends that are single and still going out on weekends, but I’m not grown up enough for people with families because I don’t have one yet.  Because we don’t have a baby, we’re not in that club, but because we’re TRYING for one, we’re out of the young crowd. It’s such a weird gray area.  At least I get to hang out in the middle with Dave.

I guess, because I was so sure when we started this process that I would be pregnant right now, I guess it makes me more aware that I’m NOT.  I remember thinking last year, in Levant, that "a year from now, I’ll be pregnant" because it surely wouldn’t take THAT long. But it has.  So, when I try to picture next year, I just CAN’T.  Who knows what will happen in the next month, the next 6, the next 12?

It’s been a great 2004, don’t get me wrong.  I just wonder about 2005. I’ll turn 30, and, and . . . then what?