Holiday Symbols

Jeff and I decided that we would be putting the tree up this year after a taking a break last year. And since we are finding ourselves in a better monetary situation, we made the decision to spring for some 'shatterproof' ornaments rather than the classic 'shards of fun' glass ornaments that we usually have.

We've been lucky enough to have Aunt Stacey's tree for the last several years. Lucky because it is a beautiful pre-lit tree.

Saturday night, (after the obligatory mourning for the Husker's loss . . .) I wisely put up the tree so all that we needed to do on Sunday was decorate.

Picture this lovely domestic scene on a Sunday morning:

We hang the garland, quickly discovering that Mommy didn't get enough packages of garland to sufficiently cover the tree.

F#@$^&&$#!!!

Now for the new ornaments! I open up the boxes and tubes of 74 shatterproof glittery red and gold orbs to find that some asinine person has decided that tiny little strings would work soooooo much better than hooks. So now Mommy is sitting on the floor, cursing quietly to herself as she ties strings for 71 pretty ornaments.

F#@$^&&$#!!!

71 of 74?

I only tied strings for 71 of the 74 because apparently the 24 gold ornaments weren't cool enough to come with strings for each ornament and I was too cranky to hunt down some matching strings in my sewing stuff upstairs. So the last 3 are banished to storage until next year.

F#@$^&&$#!!!

Now picture Alaina running around attempting to tell us all exactly how this is supposed to go.

NO! Not the shiny ones just the Glittery ones!
Kayla! Stop Throwing the ornaments!
Please hurry up tying those strings Mommy!
KAYLA! Stop touching the ornaments!
Mommy can you lift me up to put the high ones on?
Kayla! Don't touch THAT!
When do we put that star on the top.
MOMMY KAYLA'S TOUCHING THAT AGAIN!!!

F#@$^&&$#!!!

And Kayla, for almost the entire time I've been tying silly little strings, has been tossing the ornaments like she's trying out for the Olympics' first Bean-the-Cat event.She'd win the gold for sure.

F@#$%#$@#$!!!!

And as I get up to get the star I realize,I bought all these pretty GOLD decorations,

And my star is SILVER.

And as crazy as I am, that just will NOT do for our tree.
So we brought home a pretty new glittery red star when we got the rest of our garland.

F@#$%#$@#$!!!!

You still hear that cursing in the background? What do you mean you thought it was ME?!?

Nope!

That cursing going on the entire time, is Jeff. Because if there is one thing in the world that irritates Jeff in this world more than GLITTER, I haven't found it yet.
Jeff is a glitter magnet. If there is a glittery object in our house, Jeff will be wearing glitter to work for 3 weeks. The poor guy could double as a pixie.

(A very manly pixie, my dear. You wear your glitter well.)

And now for the Moment of the day. Oh dear weak of heart friends and family, avert your ears.

As we are decorating the tree Alaina casually says,

(Take a deep breathe and wait for it.)

Hey Mommy, boys have a tongue between their legs.

And now you can begin laughing your ass off.

But this post has gone on long enough. I leave you with this fun little tidbit, and I will post the conversation I had with Alaina about this tomorrow, or as soon as I can.

Mad as a hatter!

"What's going on in your life?" you ask.

My second favorite answer is I got a promotion at work! Jeff and I have been planning all the ways to spend all that extra cash I will be earning like. . . yachts and private planes.

Just kidding, but I'm totally psyched because I haven't had a promotion since I started and due to the economy getting a raise has been pretty tough, so this is pretty big news for us.

And what has taken me so long to post?

Well let me see if I can sum up in one word what I have been doing with my last month.

Halloween.

While Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday over all. Halloween is the holiday that I was built for . . .

Because I LOVE costumes.

Do you know about me and theater? Have I mentioned it yet? I am a pretty poor actress and singer, so I didn't get to do much on stage, not to mention I pretty much sucked at hitting my cues to enter and leave . .we won't mention the one time I was spacing out in the green room and completely forgot to go on stage. (Don't worry, I didn't have any dialogue that got dropped.)

But I did fall in love with this lady.

Donna

(Ritchie Valenz has begun crooning in the background)

Dear Donna taught me everything I know about doing this . . .

No! Not dressing in drag! Costuming!

While Mom and Grams get all the credit for teaching me how to sew (yes I did leave my high school home ec teacher out on purpose . . .) Donna was my college theater professor of costume and makeup design. Due to her fun and laughter, when I wasn't with my boyfriend off campus, I was in her shop stitching away merrily.

And once a year I let that theater minor loose on the world and wind up with something a little like this . . .

The Mad Hatter!!!

This is me downtown competing in a costume competition on Saturday.
And yes I did place, I came in fourth after Han Solo riding a Tonton, a Chilean Miner, and a Husker *ahem* violating the Mizzou tiger (yucky, but it was well done.)
Currently there are probably 100 plus pictures of me surfing around the intranet and I'm sure several videos of me dancing like a loon
oh, excuse m I mean I was "Futterwacking" like a loon. When in Wonderland . . . .

And now here is where I brag. I made almost the entire thing myself. Yep, the hat. the jacket, the gloves and eyebrows were all me. The pants were modified from Goodwill, and my sister actually had the socks and boots in her closet. Between my makeup design starter kit and my sister's collection of eye shadow, I didn't have to buy a single piece of makeup.

And the gift card that I won wasn't anywhere near what I spent. But I always figure that some of these pieces will be reusable, so they have been retired to the costume closet upstairs until needed again.

I did save a bit of time for my girls' costumes.

Sadly the camera was running out of batteries and I was running out of patience, so these pics are all I have.

And, alright, I admit it!

I purchased the Tink costume! (I just heard Donna's gasp of outrage from across town . . .)

I just couldn't find the right color of stretchy fabric to make a tink costume that would last for at least 2 years. And if I'm going to make a princess/fairy dress for Alaina, it needs to be built to fit for a few years because she loves to dress up.


Jeff was very fortunate in that I didn't have time to make a costume for him, because he would have made a nice Peter Pan. (Ha ha!) Don't mind Kayla, I swear she's just screaming "Take the picture already!!!" : )

I swear if I had the time, I would costume everyone I know for Halloween.

and really that's about it. I've signed us up for holiday photo sessions this weekend so I've resigned myself to rushing around getting haircuts, dresses and everything else for the little ones before Sunday.


And with that planned, Jeff and I are looking at zero relaxing weekends before December.

*Sigh*

I don't know why I ever think that I can get anything done between Labor day and Christmas.

Confession

When I haven't blogged in a while, I feel like I'm going to confession.

As in, having to admit everything that's happened for an unreasonably long time while only one person listens.

So enjoy this update whomever you may be.

Christmas was a wonderful experience being snowed in at my parents house. I know that from now on at every family Christmas there will be two things that are never forgotten.

Red Wine and Hard Liquor.

We all got along remarkably well and when things started to get a little edgy, they'd lay down for a nap. There were enough adults to watch all the little ones successfully with little incident . . .

Even though my niece almost drank a handful of toilet water on my watch.

ALMOST! I SAID ALMOST! I had her take a bath with her cousin instead so that they could suck the icky bath water out of their washcloths instead, well that's what my baby does anyway. . .

To top things off, we went to stay with the in-laws the next weekend, after I checked to make sure there wasn't a chance of getting snowed in away from home again. However, apparently a 20% chance of snow has become a sure thing in Nebraska, because there was a light snow the entire time we were there. And I KNOW they don't have enough supplies to get my family through a snow in.

Well I've run out of cohesive thoughts due to the nasty weather so I'll sum up:
- WiiFit is the devil, but I can beat everyone except my Dad at Wii golf.

- Baby K is going to be my calm child, she's started going to sleep without fussing.

- My in-laws are beginning to understand parenting again, and probably why they only had one child.

- Our Christmas tree is still up, because the lights help warm up our frigid living room.

- I've finally found the right volume on the baby monitor that I don't hear every squeak, but will wake up when her cries begin to sound distressed.

- There may have to be some heavy bribes involved if we have discussion on a third child before baby K is 5.

I'll leave you with a question to ponder that came to me as I listened to a story told by a friend at our bowl game party.

Is it just a little bit sad to admit that you try to whip kitties/spin donuts in snowy parking lots when you are over the age of 30? Or has it progressed to full blown pathetic?

Dress up day

I slaved over my sewing machine last night to make sure that Alaina could be Cinderella today for daycare. I'm just sure that the costume will come home in shreds and I'll have to start from scratch for tomorrow. *sigh*

All night long and this morning as well she said things like,

"I'm going to be so beautiful. I'l be soo pretty."
"Tabby will want to wear my dress!"
"Everyone is going to sing happy birthday to me."

Hopefully she isn't too crushed to realize that she won't be the center of attention all day.

I did persuade her to stand for a picture this morning.

I recycled a costume I previously made for my sister, and if I feel up to it, I'll take a picture.

But I wanted to share with you the view that greeted me and I arrived at work.

This is HR and yes 'Fred' did dye his hair for this. He told me he tried a wig and it made him look like Doris Day.

They actually chased down the owner of the mystery machine and asked to borrow it just for this.

I love Halloween!

The big white dress.

Saturday found my family waking to a light dusting of snow on the yard. It was enough to send me in a panic about . . .

Holiday shopping! The weather made it feel like I needed to run to the crowded mall and search high and low for a perfect gift. To remedy this, Jeff and I sat down to talk "money." This is a huge thing for us, because for most of our relationship, I never had any $, Jeff had plenty of $, so when it came to finances, Jeff ran the show. I finally got tired of conversation that started with "Don't spend any money until (insert date)," "We can't afford that right now," and "What did you buy?"

Things have been a little tight for the last few months because of hospital bills that seem to just keep coming (seriously, why can't there just be one bill?) but not uncomfortable by any means. I'm looking forward to that magical time next year called tax returns when someone pays us because we have two beautiful children and because we have the heart to donate. Sometime mid next year, we should be able to redo the baby room.

Any who,
Saturday afternoon found us at the State Capital Building for a wedding. It was pretty cold, and we didn't know that the wedding would be outside in one of the courtyards. It was a beautiful place for a wedding and the bride was stunning.

Enter our new wedding expert, Alaina.

As we were treking out the door to go to the wedding, Alaina stopped and in a shocked voice stated,
Wait! I wanted to wear the big white dress!

Oh hunny, the bride wears the big white dress.

But I want to wear it!

hunny, only the girl getting married wears the big white dress.

Okay, I'll marry daddy.

Hunny, you have to be all grown up like mommy and daddy to get married.

Ohhhhh -kaaay

Then at the courthouse, she announced that Mommy and daddy needed to dance with her.

And where did she become the wedding expert all of a sudden?

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was on last week and I let her watch the wedding scene, Then when she started to connect the dots, I showed her our wedding album, Aunt Angie and Uncle Brett's wedding pictures, and even pulled out my wedding dress. (which by the way, still needs to be dry cleaned, oops.)

I did promise her that if she wants too, she can wear mommy's big white dress when she gets married.

Fat Tuesday

Well that glorious day has arrived!

Fat Tuesday!

The day that we . . .

umm, the day that we . . .

Well, Nuts.

I can't think of a single thing that we do to celebrate this celebration of all celebrations. Mardi Gras just isn't a big deal in Nebraska I guess.

Personally, I can't decide if this is a good or a bad thing. In a state that was largely populated by German, Czech, and Slavic immigrants, I guess we are more of a Wilber Czech Festival kind of people.

I think that this is an instance that our new Attorney General would have refered to us as cowards for. . .

What, sis? You mean you don't know what I'm talking about? Well, allow this Anderson Cooper addicts to enlighten you.

Our oh so lovely Attorney General gave a riveting speech in honor of Black History Month in which he called us all a 'Nation of Cowards.' He basically railed at all of society for staying in our comfort zones, leading the whites to congregate with whites and blacks to congregate with blacks in social, religious, and familial situations, leading to a society induced segregation.

I can't get this out of my head, its been milling around for the last week. The illusion of the USA as the "Melting Pot" was mentioned, but I've never bought into this pesonally. So many people have tried to retain some of their roots and maintain their cultures that we've never seemlessly melted together. I've always pictures us as more of a salad. Different foods that are mixed together in one dish. We each retain our own tastes and structure, but together we become something more interesting that we were on our own.

But what about this comfort zone theory?

Is it so bad to have a comfort zone? For the people who are afraid to take a chance, comfort zones are all they know. But in a society today where international travel is getting to be as common as going to a neighboring state, what is the harm in settling back into your comfort zone?

Does it really relegate us to being called a 'Nation of Cowards?'

Valentine's Surprise

Cheese!

Jeff was supposed to work late last night for testing. But they called off the testing so he decided to run and get Alaina and I Valentine's presents so he didn't have to battle the snow today or tomorrow.

I got a dozen roses . . .which the cat keeps trying to eat.

And the one thing I asked for:

A cookie from Eileen's!

There is absolutely no better cookie in the world than an Eileen's chocolate chip cookie with frosting.

Since school was already called off today, Jeff is now spending the day at hoem with Alaina, no doubt shoving her full of bits of her cookie and watching lots of good movies.

I'm just happy that the CIO called to say she would be working from home. Snow days are my favorite days to be at work because I get A LOT done when no one is in the office.

Yay snow!

Happy New Year!

My resolution is to get through this pregnancy!

Actually, I resolve this year to keep a better handle on the family finances which entails sticking my nose into my husbands sacred bill paying area, which iritates him to no end. But since I do all of the extra curricular spending (groceries, clothes, gifts) I need to be able to justify spending.

Add on resolutions:
1) Get more organized at work.
2) Get more organized at home.
3) Stay active (I'm wearing my pedometer today for the first time in months!)


And that's about it. Nothing that I can really fail at on the list yet, but I try to keep things vague because they I can't fail at them, but can recommit to them throughout the year.

But have I got a tale for New Years:
I hope that everyone had a great time with friends or family, because I spent my New Years Eve cleaning my house.

Yes I know, not a big deal . . .until I tell you why.

I , for once, was not the person who dropped communication in our house. My husband forgot to inform me that his parents were staying with us New Years Eve.

Exciting.

Not really a big deal except my husband decided he needed to set up his "man cave" downstairs,

Which involved:
Moving a large TV downstairs,
Moving ALL of the extra TVs in the house to said area,
Moving ALL couches in the basement to sit around the TVs,
Not entertaining our daughter,
Cleaning the typically unused bar and organizing the alcohol in it,
vacuuming done by my mother in law,
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I was not a happy camper all evening because my plan had been to fix the chili for our bowl game party and then sit down to enjoy watching Anderson Cooper try to keep Kathy Griffith in line on CCN for the New York City ball drop.

Turns out, I had to madly clean the upstairs to make it presentable (sorry I didn't do this for you sis) because it was a mess and then made the chili at 10 p.m. while my husband and his parents fell asleep on the couch watching my beloved Anderson.

*sigh*

At least I got to consume a whole bottle of sparkling non-alcoholic apple juice by myself in the kitchen while I cooked.

And p.s. - GO HUSKERS! I LOVE YOU PELINI!

Christmas Letters

So we received a few Christmas cards and letter from friends, but nothing big this year. I'm always excited to see everyone's pictures of their families and how they've grown.

I was reading a blog the other day about someone's pet peeve's for Christmas cards. To sum up it basically said if you aren't going to include a picture or family update/letter . . why do you bother? Apparently a signature with "Happy Holidays" isn't cutting the mustard anymore. You can send the cards with just the signature to me, I won't complain, but I have one pet peeve about Christmas Letters . . .

The resume style letter.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Its the letter that just as well be written in a bulleted list with all the family stats at the top because its almost as impersonal as a resume.

Child 1 participated in list A-F this year in school and received awards G-I for their efforts,
Child 2 participated in list J-M this year and received awards . . . . .

You get the idea.
I'm not complaining about what they put in the letter, but about how they present it. At least tell me which club they enjoy the most or the fact that they were benched for most of the volleyball season, but made the winning dig to help get them to finals!Give me something to smile about! I made Jeff laugh as I read one letter in a snootie voice just to illustrate how "structured" I felt it was.

But to complete my holiday, I am simply waiting for the Christmas letter from the best writter of all.

Papa!

Be prepared for the Dangler X-Mas letter! In fact, I may even blog it with the permission of the author! (The co-author/wife will do as well!) These are the kinds of years that make me a little antsy about what went into the letter because Papa didn't call for "ideas" about what we've done . . . which means my siblings and I provided him with enough unforgettable fodder throughout the year so he didn't need to strech his imagination for the 'good stuff.'

What will make the x-mas letter cut?
Papa Elvis and Mommy Marilyn?
Potty Training?
Trips to Colorado?
Trips to Florida?
The ever rotating car cycle of life for our family?
New jobs?

There is just too much to choose from! I have no idea how Papa narrows it down!

But I do know a few things that should make the cut next year . . . and may appear in my own "not-as-awesome-as-Papa's" letter.
- The 10 year high school reunion for me which is also Papa's 40 year reunion!
- Baby number 2
- Potty training and anything that Alaina does silly (everything)

Anyway, I had better not start counting chicks before they hatch.

Big Blog for a Big Weekend . .

I had a pretty good weekend. . .

It started off wonderful beyond belief when I got a call at work from a friend saying she was in town from California and wondered if I would meet her and another friend for lunch. First I cried because I was so happy to hear from her. Second, I giggled because there nothing I love more than getting together with good friends over lunch and third, well, I cried some more because hormones took over my body this weekend.

For the rest of the weekend I finished getting all of our Christmas presents and wrapping all of them, I have a few left that I got boxed, but they are Alaina's Santa, presents, so I wanted to surprise her with the Disney Princess wrapping paper I bought to wrap them in. (They are actually in decorative boxes, but what's the fun of opening presents if you don't get to rip the wrapping paper at her age?
And I should note that our presents from Santa this year are from a real live "Santa." One of Jeff's coworkers offered to drop off some of her daughter's old toys and dress up clothes which I never get my hopes up about because did we grow up with dad's leisure suit as a dress up item sis? Anyway, I was almost in tears when I saw six store purchased Barbie dresses, most with matching slippers and one of which is either a wedding dress or snow princess gown. I was stunned . . . so I cried some more. She'll get some for x-mas this year and some for her birthday, just to share the wealth.

But the biggest success and "oops" was potty training. On Sunday I asked Alaina if she wanted to wear training pants or a pull up and she chose the training pants. I then persuaded her with little more than a small promise of a treat to use the toilet . . .with success! I was so excited, the treat became a small cone from Runza at the Mall. We had a small accident at the mall because mommy lost track of time, but hey, two steps forward, one step back is fine with me!

Of course then there was the incident when we got home. I had daddy take Alaina in to try to use the potty, and soon heard some crying and daddy calling "Mommy! Come here!" Alaina had 'fallen in' for the first time.
Poor thing.
She was mostly scared, but we changed into comfy footed pjs with a pull up and gave lots of hugs and kisses to help. This little incident did nothing to help Alaina's desire to use the big toilet, because now there was the threat of falling in.

Enter the Chocolate Pomander!

Last weekend with the Christmas baking extravaganza, Mom and I made chocolate pomanders, which were mostly consumed by my coworkers on company food day, but I had about 7 left. Alaina came into the living room carrying the small container of Pomanders after her nap on Sunday asking if she could have one. I told her we were saving them for when she went to the bathroom on the toilet to which I got this reply.

"But I did go to the bathroom!"

"I know you did, Alaina," I replied, "and you got ice cream for that time. These are for the next time you go to the bathroom on the toilet."

"Oh . . . Mommy I want to go potty!"

And she did.

Wow. So much excitement for a standard bodily function has never been witnessed in our house before. Alaina and I were dancing in the living room, and of course Alaina's mouth was full of her celebration Pomander.

It was a great end to a successful weekend.

One month countdown to baby check . . .

I had an appointment yesterday with my midwife . . .

and the high point was getting scolded for not having my tree up yet. Of course she confessed that she didn't have hers up either but was truly horrified when I said maybe we wouldn't put it up this year . . .

So I've slotted tomorrow for the decorating day. Now all I have to do is tell the spouse to carry all the boxes down tonight while I'm at the part-time job.

Does everyone else have theirs up already?

Today was the company gift day at work . . . and I've liked the company gifts for the last two years, I received a two pack of soft sided coolers and Jeff has adopted the smaller one because it fits a six pack of beer for him and one bottle for me inside, and last year I received a hiking style duffle which means it has more pockets and handles that any human being would ever need unless you hiked across the outback.

But this year might just be my favorite. What is it you ask . . .well, I'd tell you, but I'll wait until I get home to downloand the pics to post for an official wordless wednesday posting.

I'm so excited! Who knew that a simply company gift could be so rewarding? ; )

Final Countdown . . .

10 days until Christmas!!!

And how is your shopping going?

This was a big weekend for our house to catch up on a lot of things and some big lessons learned:
1) After three hours of unpleasantries betwixt my spouse and I . . . the christmas cards are in the passenger seat of the new van waiting to be dropped off over lunch.

Lesson Learned: Actual pictures are WAY to expensive to get for Christmas cards. Next year I'll pick out 4 -5 shots of kids and family to make color copiers on the copy machine like Mom and Dad do. . . although the letter will be no where near the level of dad.

2) Mom and I did Christmas baking on Saturday and made a good dent in the pre-holiday baking. During the entire session, she kept saying, "Why didn't we start doing this years ago?" Which my mind translated into "This is much better than trying to do this the day before Christmas Eve at 3 in the morning!"

Lesson Learned: Next year, we need to make a weekend out of it and get the shopping done friday night before. The shopping/softening/plan of attack process should get refined by about year three I hope.

Oh, and we won't plan on cooking indoors all day on the nicest day of December either because . . .

3) I completed MOST of the family christmas shopping on Sunday. this is a tough year for us, with just having bought a new vehicle and shelling out a lot of cash for the other one to be up and running, so I tried to stick to a very strict budget this year . . . which led to a few discussions (not quite heated . . .but a bit intense for us) with the spouse about why spending ten extra dollars on one person was a mortal sin. Oh and by the way, I was the winner and the ten dollars was NOT spent.

Lesson Learned: When we sit down to look at finances for next year . . which we most definitely will with a baby on the way, we are budgeting for gifts for birthdays and Christmas next year.

But the weekend was a pretty good time overall. Alaina had a lot of fun singing along with the Chrsitmas station on the radio yesterday, bursting into song with and occasional "SNOW!" "GLOW," or "CHRISTMAS!" sung at the top of her lungs. She usually joined in with any word at the end of the line that was sung for more that four seconds. It was so darn cute I wish I had it on tape, but she clammed up whenever we got near.

However, we did try going with training pants all weekend, with a few painful parts. I probably didn't approach this right, but after the third time she walked up to inform me that she was poopy and I needed to change her diaper, I informed her that she was wearing panties, and you don't change panties because you don't poop in them.

Alaina stared at me as if I had gone mad.

I said underwear isn't for changing. So you have to go to the bathroom in the toilet. She said, "No! Change my diaper!" So I said again that she wasn't wearing a diaper she was wearing underwear and underwear isn't for pooping and peeing in.

She started to pout quite prettily at this point, so I said I was sad that she didn't want to go to the bathroom in the toilet like big girls because I just know that she is a big girl and can do it. Which I got a resounding "Yes I can!" for so we hugged and went to take off her underwear and take a bath.

I told her next weekend is a no diaper weekend again, which she seemed pretty open too, so we'll see what happens.

I suppose I did that kind of backwards, but I know that she does well with the toilet at daycare so I'm a little frustrated that she refuses to try at home. Its just flat out time to encourage the switch to big girl undies.

Does anyone have a tip on a sticker chart or candy reward system?

Halloween Pics

Here are the pics of myself as Elvis and my friend Denise as Marilyn.


After work, we took little Belle out trick or treating, and yep I pulled it together and made the costume.

We took a break for supper to have pancakes. Belle entertained all of village inn as she chatted it up on her sugar high.


Off to Mimi and Papa's for a ride in the combine.

And on Sunday Belle got to come to church for trunk or treat.

For the love of soup!

I can't sleep . . .

I can't eat . . .

All I can think about is Aunt Marilyn's homemade chicken noodle soup.


Okay so maybe that's an exageration, I 'm not losing sleep over this . . but it does make it hard to find something that sounds good for meals when I have this craving.

Does anyone have a copy of the recipe? Is it in the Rosedale cookbook, Mimi? I'm seriously desperate here, I must have it! Knowing my luck its a guarded secret that she won't share. Ack!

There is just nowhere that I can think of that serves delicious, tastes like homemade chicken soup around here! Everything has sugar in it or something because the broth and noodles are practically sweet. Sweet I tell you!

They lack that savory, salty goodness that makes homemade soup the perfect comfort food.

And with the thought of a holiday food, comes the thought of Holiday plans . . . Jeff and I hate trying to plan what to do every holiday season, but we aren't yet to that point in life, where we cam make concrete plans.

Or maybe I should say we don't have enough Grandkids on either side to push the matter.

Heck, we can't even remember what we did last year for Thanksgiving.

Mimi? Do you recall? I think we tried to make it to see the Shafers after lunch last year, but Jeff says that was two years ago and that there wasn't a Shafer Thanksgiving last year. Does anyone else remember?

At any rate, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place, because neither of the two other married siblings (cousin in his case) are going to be in attendance to sway the vote. I'm leaning toward the Shafers, but I may delay the decision by waiting to see who confirms attendance with Mimi to see if this is a "big" Shafer year.

That discussion directly links to Christmas plans. The married cousins are going to Brazil for the holiday on Jeff's side which has led to the direct hope that we can get his Grandmother to try to have the holiday on the weekend before (they leave the 27th so they don't want to travel away from home and raise the risk of missing their flight).

That would free us up to attend the Shafer Christmas Eve which my Brother and his wife said they were planning to attend, and my sister as well from Florida. the next question is . . . what are my Brother and his Wife's plans for the day of Christmas and how will that shape the immediate siblings holiday plans? Yikes!!

How does everyone do it these days without going nuts!

Sorry that was a long ramble . . . but I had to get it out there!