November, December, and the Big News!!!

Most of November involved doing school, and work, and school, and work, and more school, and more work, and then Thanksgiving! Which was a very nice break indeed. We spent Thanksgiving Day with Luke's family at his house where we dined on fine china!! Certainly a first for me. :) It was too much fun! Luke and I had decided that we'd better tell our parents our big news, a.k.a., that I'm PREGNANT!!! over the break, as I was throwing up and feeling rather sick, and things like that don't go unnoticed. So we prepared a little frame for his parents that said, "Grandbaby Perkins coming Summer 2010!!!" and at the end of the night Luke brought it upstairs and handed it to his dad. His dad told mom Perkins to come see, and by that time there was enough sly smiling going on that Lauren caught on and immediately said, "I knew it!!" Ha ha ha! It was fun. Everyone was so nice and excited about it.

Then we trekked over to my parent's house to stay the night and spend the next day with my fam. We waited for Heidi and Devin to arrive, then made everyone haul themselves upstairs and away from their movie, on the pretext of coming up to see Heidi and Devin and their cute kittens they were tending. They grumbled, but they came. After allowing everyone to greet and talk for just a minute we handed my mom a gift bag saying we got her something. Inside was a baby's onesie that said, "What happens at Grandma's, stays at Grandma's." Too cute! And this will be my mom's first grandchild, so we thought it was appropriate. :) Well, she started opening it and hadn't even gotten it all the way out of the bag when she screamed, "Shut up you stupid idiot!! Are you serious???" Ha ha ha ha ha! Classic mom. The screaming continued, and Heidi quickly realized what was going on and immediately starts screaming and bawling and saying, "Oh my gosh!!!" and then Samantha catches on as well and starts screaming and crying too, and they all mob me in a huge hug. Ha ha ha! My dad, Ronny, Devin, and the boys all realized what was going on sometime during the screaming, and they all gave me and Luke hugs too. And of course immediately afterward mom has gathered three books and some pregnancy tea for me, and Heidi is suggesting a gel she knows about that helps with stomach tone and stretch marks, and we're all talking like crazy about what's going on. Needless to say, the movie did not continue until quite a while after that, and by that point Luke and I were tuckered out so we went to bed with no more ado.

The next day was spent decorating the house for Christmas and then we all went out to eat and to see New Moon afterward. What a disappointment! Not that my expectations were high. They weren't. Which makes it all the worse that it still managed to disappoint me! In my opinion it was a worse job than Twilight. They may have had better special effects (admittedly, the wolves turned out well) but the script was horrifying, the makeup overdone to the point of being clownish, and the acting sadly without emotion or variation of any kind. Add to that the unbelievably silly lines Jacob kept spouting throughout, and you have a disaster of a movie. Honestly, they could/can do so much better!!! Why they fail is beyond me.

At any rate, we all swallowed that and of course will be attending Eclipse at the same time next year. No badly made movie can stop our tradition, no sir! Ha!

The next day we had a multi-birthday celebration at Luke's house for James, Sarah, Luke, Dad Perkins, and Lauren. We had a delicious lunch, opened presents, went and took the traditional Santa picture, played some kickball, and finished with a delectable cake and cupcakes, compliments of Mom Perkins and Dippidee's respectively. Having gotten our fill of good food, family, and treats, we headed back home to resume the battle against failing school.

Remarkably, we've come out quite well. Luke, of course, will have managed a much better gpa than I, but I like to use all kinds of excuses like, "Well it's my senior year" and "I'm really not as good at my major as everyone else" and, of course, "I am pregnant." Ha ha ha! Nevertheless, with finals done for Luke and halfway through for myself, I think we haven't done half bad.

The other big news, besides the little blueberry that's growing inside me of course, is that Heidi and Devin were sealed!! On December 12, exactly a year from their marriage. Luke and I, as well as my parents and Devin's parents got to go through the session with them at the Salt Lake Temple, and they even asked Luke and I to be the witness couple! That was so neat! I got to sit right by Heidi the whole time. Afterward we went straight to the sealing room, where Devin's sister and her husband joined us, and they were sealed. It was so beautiful and wonderful! I'm extremely happy for them both.

After the sealing we went to eat at Tucano's (always a pleasure) and then Luke and I strolled around Temple Square for a moment looking at some of the lights, and caught the first half of the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert in the tabernacle that was going on across the street at the conference center. We left early in order to avoid traffic, but I imagine the rest was quite beautiful.

So there's the update! I will add pictures as soon as I have them, and this post shall be complete.