Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Photo Dump Updates

So I thought since it's been a while I'd update with some pictures.

Annika turned 5 this month.  I know, how is this child already 5?



This is a shed my dad built, it's at my uncle's ex-wife's house.  Yes, we were visiting, my cousin still lives there.  The girls actually asked to go outside and Josh said it was like they were drawn to this shed.  They loved it (yes, we let Annika dress herself, makes for very creative outfits).


The girls having dinner at our friend's house.


Total impulse, I chopped 8 inches of hair off.  Best idea ever.  I don't know why I try to grow out my hair, it looks so much better short.  Annabel also got her first professional haircut this day, she's a cutie.


Sister Love!  I can't believe how big they are getting.


Question for today: Do I have any readers out there? Please comment if I do!  I want to see if I should start blogging again!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Thanksgiving

It's weird how I sometimes feel the need to post.  At one time, way back in 2009, I had a blog post every single day.  Now in 2014 I haven't posted since July, almost 4 months.

Thanksgiving sucks.  I'm just going to say it.  The last time I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner was in 2009, when Annika was only a few weeks old.  It was the last Thanksgiving with my parents.

The following Thanksgivings went like this:

2010: We went to a co-worker's house and had dinner with her family.  It was actually very nice.  My dad was in the hospital and the nurses told me to make some time for myself and enjoy the holiday.  Basically they didn't want me sitting at the hospital like I was doing on a daily basis.

2011: My aunt made a fantastic dinner.  My other aunt was also there, my uncle and his wife, my grandmother and my great-uncle.  I was VERY pregnant with Annabel at the time.  Probably one of the best Thanksgivings.

2012: I wanted to make dinner at our house but we ended up having a dinner made at a local yacht club my uncle's wife belongs to.  It sucked.

2013: We were not invited anywhere.  My family made other plans without us.  Josh had to call his sister and ask if we could join them.  This is his half-sister so her dad was there, his wife, her half-sister and husband and our brother-in-law's brother and sister.  We felt a little off.  It was a great dinner, had fun with the family, but I couldn't help but feel a little like an outsider since we weren't actually related to everyone there.  Make sense?  Probably not but it just felt weird.

This year we were supposed to have dinner at a friend's house about 3 hours away.  Another couple with kids the same ages as the girls were also supposed to come.  Then they asked us to help with the cost of the dinner, fine.  Then no one would give him a clear answer as to how much "help" they needed.  Then one of our friend was having a lot of her family coming.  I canceled the plans with them.  I didn't want another Thanksgiving watching another family enjoying time together and us being there unrelated and feeling a little out of place. Plus how much is 1/3rd of the cost?  I have no clue why no one could tell me!!  I'm a planner and it bugged me not knowing.

So for $40 (which turns out is a lot less than 1/3rd would have been) I bought food for our own dinner and then found out that my aunt (the one who made the great dinner of 2011) had no plans.  So it'll be the 5 of us, which is fine with me.

I feel like Josh and I are a little displaced for a lot of holidays.  We don't do anything special for Easter, we scramble for Thanksgiving plans and we've given up on Christmas and make our own traditions with the girls.  I just want our time with the girls to be special.

So what are your Thanksgiving plans?  I have to say I'm actually very excited to make my first Thanksgiving dinner all on my own!