I vote okay. An invitation does not obligate you to send a gift, IMNSHO.

Oh, on the shower thing, I agree with Vortex. No need to attend or even send a gift unless you want to. We included a few people in our shower invites that we were like, "Should we?" We did because we didn't want anyone to feel left out. But several of them RSVPed no and did not send a gift, which was absolutely fine. You should do what makes you comfortable. There will be many people showering them with gifts, I'm sure.

That's lovely, GC!

Steph, yeah, I'd go with a gift and card.

I made it home! The first plane required extra equipment to push it back through the accumulated snow and slush at the gate as well as de-icing, so it left late. That led to a mad dash through the Atlanta airport to make my connection just before the door shut. I offered the poor 6'6" bastard in the middle my aisle seat as a thank you to the travel gods. It took 20 minutes of wandering to find my car in the long term parking lot and my luggage has yet to show. But I don't care--I'm home!

God, I felt so bad for all the holiday travelers with this awful Xmas weather. We got really lucky; Iowa and MO were cold as fuck, but clear driving.

Tep, card and giftie are fine. I wouldn't fret a whit about it.

eggplant pudding cake (grated eggplant, vanilla pudding mix, cake mix)

WHAT

Send a small gift and skip the shower? Is that okay?

Totally okay. I do agree with Beth that the motivation behind the invitation could well be "we'd like to see you again" rather than "we'd like you to give us a gift," but either way, you're under no obligation to go, or even to give them anything.

Glam, that portrait is amazing. Way to go, DW!

Glad you made it home, Calli!

Our holiday was great: lots of quality time with our families, a viewing of The Hobbit, plenty of good food (my god, we have so many cookies and candies left), and everyone got in some good baby snuggles. The only bummer was that Rosie came down with a bad cold, which she's now given to me. Christmas was actually the worst day of her cold -- she spent a few hours screaming -- but at least we had our parents there to take turns rocking her and trying to soothe her. Today M is keeping her at home while I'm off at work. I just hope they're not both miserable by the time I get home tonight.

Glam, that is one awesome Christmas present. I teared up a little, too, reading the whole story at your blog.

Glad to hear all the travelers made it home safe and sound. This time of year is always a little nail-bitey with uncertain weather.

IOmeN, I got a Kindle for Christmas and finally got it registered last night. I made the mistake of downloading Angry Birds at 9:30pm. Guess who was up past midnight flinging various colored birds at pigs? I foresee having to save this game for the weekends.

Rosie is such a cute baby, Kate! She always looks so happy.

Thanks, Burrell! She really is a happy, good-natured kid. She was SO enamored of my brother, which was super adorable. Any time she looked at him she'd give him this huge grin and waggle her eyebrows at him. So cute.

Lucky brother! Does he have a very expressive face with very distinct features? I notice that babies adore my sister's face, and while it is indeed a lovely face, my guess is the draw for babies isn't her beauty but rather her dark eyes and distinct brows.

Yeah, I'd say he does have a fairly distinctive face. Also, he spent much of the time making funny faces and noises for her, so I'm sure that was part of it too!