McDiffett Family Christmas Letter

Hello, friends and family!
Marry Christmas! Wow, it's already our third Christmas together, after 2.5 years of marriage. Time has gone quickly! For those who don't see us as often, I thought I'd catch you up on our lives and what we've been up to since our wedding (June 4, 2011). I'll try to keep it brief!
We are so thankful to all of you who were able to share our wedding with us--although of course we wish we could have had more time with each of you, it was just so wonderful to have you present! To those we missed on the "big day," we're also so thankful for your love, generosity, and support.
We had a wonderful honeymoon cruise to Mexico, after which we returned to Jessie's hometown of Tehachapi to live (the Lord provided for us shortly before the wedding with a job that Scott loved, supervising at the local pool). Our first two months were spent house-sitting for some thoughtful family friends, before we moved into the little second-floor apartment we rented with our cat Killarney for more than two years. Our favorite things about our apartment were the view, location, price, and the loved ones that have helped fill it.
Just before thanksgiving, though, we moved into our new house! We've been renovating it with lots of help from parents and friends, and it's looking great (though the outside will need a little work maybe next summer). But we're happy to be moved in and starting to get unpacked and settled. Don't forget to save our new address! And we have a third bedroom now, so plenty of room for visitors. ;)
Just before we bought the house, one of our year's big highlights was our trip to Ireland! We visited Jessie's college friend and her family and got to see as much of the country as we could squeeze in to about a week. Our list of favorites (if we had to choose): Killarney National Park, Ring of Kerry, Cliffs of Moher, pub fish & chips, time with our friends and each other, and just the lovely towns and outrageously green countryside. Our only regret was not having several more weeks to spend there!  We also had a fun second anniversary trip to California Adventure in June.
Now that this busy year is nearly done, we look forward to plans for 2014, the biggest of which is to be the birth of our first child, a baby boy! We expect him to arrive at the end of February or beginning of March, and hopefully not during a big snowstorm (though that would be memorable!). We have a few plans to continue working on the house, Jessie hopes (though a little unlikely) to have enough time to do a little gardening this spring/summer, and we plan to make a trip to Minnesota to see family and show off the little guy.