Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I am so thankful today. 2016 has been a rough year for me (as I know it has been for many people... especially this month). This year has brought the absolute hardest days of my life to some of the best. 

The other day I was thinking that I will have spent 9 months of the year pregnant and 3 more months next year, so in a period of 15 months I will have been pregnant for 12 months (with a 3 month break in Spring). 

I am sitting here, on my couch, under a cozy blanket early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day and I feel baby Logan moving every once and again. Last weekend I went through a hard time because I hadn't felt him move since Friday morning and it freaked me out. I had been feeling him pretty consistently throughout the days and then all weekend it stopped. 

On Sunday afternoon I put the doppler to find the heartbeat, which I found right away, which definitely made me feel better - especially when he bumped against it and moved away. Then at 3am Monday morning I got up to use the restroom and when I came back to bed he was having a party. I can tell I am already in trouble when it comes to sleeping when he is born! 

Since the he has once again been moving enough to keep me happy. Last night, especially, I felt him just about every time I woke up to use the bathroom. 

I cannot explain how incredibly happy it makes me to feel him move. The feeling was weird at the beginning, but it is now so very comforting. To know that I have a little human growing inside of me... It is amazing. I so absolutely love knowing he is inside of me and feeling him move. 

Ahhhh! Like I said, I can't explain the feeling. It is the nicest thing. Thomas has yet to feel Logan, but hopefully he will soon. I have been able to feel him kick by putting my hand on my abdomen, but it can be hard to feel and it takes patience. I was able to see a kick one time, but not since. 

Next year will be so different. I am going to enjoy our last Thanksgiving (and other holidays) with Logan inside of me instead of out.  I am going to give thanks for being given a 2nd change to become a mom and that everything is going so well. I am so grateful for this opportunity and for all the people who pushed us forward and held us up this year. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Holiday Weekend - Long Recap

It’s been a very active past week (plus a few days). It’s also going to be a very long post and I might ramble. But if you’ve been here you know me. J

It started off on the 22^nd of November when Thomas and I headed to Disneyland with one of his cousins’ (and his cousins’ new bride). His cousin started working for Disney recently and with that comes unlimited entrances to the park (except for December, which is blocked out – boo!). I had mentioned to the couple back in October that I had been wanting to go to Disneyland for the Christmas season to check out all the lights and decorations, so they agree to take us.

Since I mostly wanted to see the decorations we headed there around noon. We got there in time to go see the Aladdin show – which is basically Broadway quality. It’s a condensed version of the movie, lasting only 45 minutes. The Genie steals the show with some comedy in just about every seen. Some characters are removed, in this case Abu and the Rajah. When I had seen it in the past they had Abu in it. (Oops, forgot to mention that the show is actually at CA Adventure, not Disneyland).

After the show we walked around CA Adventure and went on just one ride, CA Soaring. The lines were very long and my husband and his cousin are not line waiters. It was dark by the time we headed over to Disneyland. We arrived just as the parade was taking place and got to enjoy seeing some of that as we made our way deeper into the park. We got to go on It’s A Small World, Indiana Jones, and the Haunted Mansion (I think I’m leaving something out).

The lights were spectacular as you can see by a few pictures that weren’t craptastic:

Thursday was spent, obviously, with family. I was a crappy cook and forgot to defrost the puff pastry that I had bought for my Leek Tart so I had nothing to contribute to Thanksgiving, but that was ok. There was plenty of food and leftovers to go around. Thomas and I left around 4pm, after the traditional prayer and family picture.

It was nice talking to some people that we don’t always talk to.

After we left I ended up vegging out for a while before heading to Black Angus with my parents for dinner. At first Thomas was going to go, then he said he wouldn’t, and finally he said he would. We had7:30pm reservations but were seated closer to 7:45pm. Dinner was a disaster! The restaurant has a 2 for $41 deal so each couple decided to take advantage. The deal includes 1 appetizer, 2 entrees, and a dessert. We ordered the chicken tenders and the artichokes for appetizers. Which they messed up on. They brought a sampler platter and the artichokes. A manger finally came by and we told him the mistake and so they brought out the chicken tenders. At this point Thomas had complained twice that the Sprite he ordered didn’t have any syrup.  He finally had to tell the manager that that was the problem.

Thomas and my mom both ordered salads as one of their sides and my dad had a soup. They were all brought AFTER the main course.  By that point they had already tried to bring us another order of artichokes. Thomas was over it and wanted to just leave. My mom was as well. I was a little more sympathetic, but it was ridiculous.

We decided that we’d wait to do Black Friday shopping on, well, Friday. I was able to find some good deals – which I won’t mention here because there might be prying eyes. My mom and I had a lot of fun going from store to store. I have to say that Kohl’s, once again, was the best (and I’m not even getting anything out of that). We had a $10 off $10 and a $5 off $5, then we had 2 $10 off $25 and 15% off coupons. We split our purchases into two $25 ones and were able to combine the 3 different coupons. For a total of $24 spent we saved over $200!

On Saturday I convinced Thomas to go with me to a Christmas Tree Farm about 20 minutes away….. and that will have its own post!

Basically we did a lot of shopping and Christmas decorating. My house is starting to look really nice. Here is a sneak peak:

Why I Went Out Shopping on Thanksgiving

I’ve read a lot of articles and blog posts about why people shouldn’t shop on Thanksgiving. Mostly they talk about how Thanksgiving is a family holiday and not a shopping holiday. People should be sitting around the dining room table enjoying turkey and watching football. Enjoying quality time together.

Which is perfectly ok.  I love that people do that. I love the togetherness.

But not everyone does and I think it isn’t right for me to impose what I think the holiday should be like on those people.

The argument continues that the workers are not at home but instead they are forced to work. Except, do we know that they are all forced to work? Maybe some, even many, of them want to work because it means extra money for Christmas shopping. Maybe that same employee will be out the next day partaking in Black Friday.

One of the things that comes to mind when I hear the argument about people having to work on Thanksgiving instead of being home with their families is all the people who we depend on working that day and any and all other holidays all year long.

Emergency room doctors and nurses. Police can’t take days off (even if it makes a good movie). And if firefighters and paramedics took the day off what would we do when people make fried turkeys and burn themselves? Or someone breaks their leg during some flag football? I’m sure many doctors, nurses, fire fighters, police officers, etc etc would love to have the holidays off, too. But they can’t.

What about the UPS/FedEx drivers that work on holidays to make sure that we all get those presents that we bought the day before Thanksgiving? They work on Christmas Eve to get you those presents on time. Should we give them the day off?

Not to mention grocery stores. They are typically open for at least a few hours on Thanksgiving.

My parents were going to be alone this Thanksgiving and didn't want to cook. So we went to dinner last night. My family is grateful they were open to feed us some dinner.

Sometimes people have to work on days they don’t want to work. It happens. But if they are working they are making money, they aren’t doing it for free.

Cliche Thankful Post

First off I want to wish everyone a fabulous Thanksgiving! 

I will be spending the morning making a fabulous leek tart (google it, it's amazing!) to take over to my in-law's. 

Their get together will be in the early afternoon and afterward Thomas and I will head over to dinner with my parents at Black Angus. They serve a traditional Thanksgiving meal as well as the whole menu. 

Which means soooo much food. Which started yesterday at work with honey baked ham, turkey, side dishes and the rest. 

I have a lot to be thankful this year. After all I got married and started the rest of my life with Thomas. I am healthy. I have my parents nearby and I get to see them often. I am thankful that they are around and healthy. I'm thankful to have 3 amazing nieces and an incredible nephew who are also healthy. 

I am also sad this Thanksgiving. My sister is not here with us and she will never be again. My parents are without their daughter and I know that their hearts ache with her loss. My heart aches for them. 

But even with our loss we have to be thankful for being here and together. 

Splitting The Holidays

With Thanksgiving in a couple of days and Christmas getting here before we know it I’m starting to stress out about where we will be spending these days and how long we’ll be there.

Thomas’ family is very close and they spend a lot of time together, including the holidays of course. For Thanksgiving there is a big gathering at his parents’ house. People bring in food and everyone watches football while eating some delicious meals. There is always a big family picture.

This has worked out the past few years. My family was never big into having Thanksgiving – it was mostly me organizing a dinner with my family. We’d have some honey ham and assorted sides. For a while we did that and looked at the Black Friday ad’s and made a list of what we wanted to get. Then I started dating Thomas and I started spending the day with his family.

But this year I feel different. We’re married now, of course. But my sister is also not here this year. Even though she might not have participated in the holidays in the past years, I feel strange leaving my parents’ home alone that day. My brother will be doing a road trip through the week and into the following week, so it will be just them. While they are invited and welcome to come to Thomas’ parents’ house (and my dad did last year), they don’t really want to. My mom is not a social person and does not like being in social situations at all.

So I’m not sure what to do. I tried talking to Thomas about it the other night and he gets offended that I don’t want to spend time with his family. But it’s not about me not wanting to be with them, it’s about me wanting to be with my family. Most likely what will happen is that I will spend the afternoon with him and his family, and then go home and spend the evening with mine (possibly enjoying Thanksgiving dinner out at a restaurant).

Then there will Christmas. Typically I have spent Christmas with my sister and her family up in the bay area. But last year and this year I cannot go because I can’t get the time off from work. Last year I went to his parents’ house for Christmas Eve for food as well as a gift exchange with the whole crowd. Then on Christmas Day we went to his aunt’s house for a Christmas dinner.

As you can see they do a lot of celebrating and there isn’t much time left for my family. My feelings of not wanting to leave my parents alone for Christmas is the same as they are for Thanksgiving. Maybe even more so since my sister did celebrate the day with them. In our family we do Christmas Eve dinner, and really Christmas is just a day to hang out.

You can see my problem. Suggestions are welcome. I want to be fair to Thomas, but I want to spend time with my family too. My parents are older (my mom is 70 and my dad is 80) and not in the best of health. I want to take advantage of every Christmas I can with them. I’m also not requesting or requiring him to come spend it at my parents’ place. I can do it on my own and he can spend time with his family.

Next year will be another story all together. Christmas will be on a Friday and I want to go to my sisters’ house to spend it with her and my nieces again. Maybe even my parents and brothers’ family will make the trip. I know Thomas will not like the idea.

Once we have kids I know that I will want to have a nice Christmas Eve at home to exchange pajama presents and then watch a movie by the fire (did I mention we have a wood burning fire place?) before setting out some cookies and carrots.