Just 3 weeks and 1 day to go until our little girl’s due date! I’m very much looking forward to not being pregnant anymore at this point. Bending over to put on socks and shoes feels like an athletic feat, I’m starting to have contractions, and a bladder infection is causing me to run to the bathroom every 1-2 hours during the night. I’m exhausted all the time and really miss being able to walk everywhere, eat sushi, and have a drink!

Our shipment of belongings arrived a couple of days before Christmas. It was so nice to unpack everything that reminded us of home. There were lots of items we found in a box and we said “Aww, remember this?” It was wonderful to be able to put our ornaments on our tree as well. It made the whole holiday feel a little more homey.

Tom and I had a wonderful, quiet Christmas and New Year. Before we moved, a normal holiday season for us consisted of two full days of driving from one end of Massachusetts to the other and back again, stopping at various points to visit with family. It was always lovely, but never stress-free. By the time New Year’s Eve came around we usually stayed in, steamed some seafood, made a cheese and charcuterie board, drank wine and watched the ball drop on TV. Obviously, being away from family, we needed to do things differently this year.

For Christmas we spent the day lounging and watching Christmas movies. I made cinnamon rolls and quiche for breakfast, a ham and potatoes for dinner, and a pineapple upside down cake in honor of my grandmother for dessert. Did you know hams in Ireland aren’t pre-cooked like they are in The States? Me either! Until I went to cook it.

Needless to say, dinner was served a couple hours later than I planned. Luckily I made this Cranberry Brie Bread Bowl to snack on between breakfast and dinner! With the exception of a few hiccups, the food all came out delicious! I was able to prep most of it the day before and afterward we had several days of delicious leftovers.

We made reservations at an underground restaurant for New Year’s Eve. They offered a special menu for the holiday and Tom loves a good tasting menu with a wine pairing. We went a little early so we could walk around the area to people watch and try to get a feel for how Dublin celebrates NYE. Turns out Dublin does a pretty low-key NYE, but I liked that. Despite the warnings from Free Now we had zero trouble getting a cab to the restaurant or back home.

After dinner we came back and watched Jools’ Annual Hootenanny on TV. We were pleasantly surprised to see it featured performances from a couple of our favorite artists, plus Rick Astley unironically singing “Never Gonna Give You Up.” It felt a little strange having so much time to ourselves during a time of year that has traditionally been so busy for us, but it was a nice way spend our last holiday season as a family of two. Next year we plan to bring the baby back to The States to spend the holidays with family, so we’ll be back to the normal Christmas chaos in no time.

Since the new year we’ve been preparing the apartment and ourselves for the impending arrival of our little girl, picking up some last minute items we need, installing/building the ones we already had, cooking and freezing meals, and attending doctor’s appointments. We also set up our guest room for our visitors who will be coming next month! We haven’t had any visitors since we moved and I’m very much looking forward to getting to share our new little one and our new lives with our family and friends. The next couple of months are going to be busy and everything in our lives as we know it is going to change, but we’re so excited to meet our little girl <3

Happy Friday! I hope you guys have an amazing weekend!

*Credits: GIFS courtesy of GIPHY.