Happy Birthday!

First of all: Happy Birthday to my hubby! You're gettin old!:) Love you!

I've been a slacking blogger. Mostly, I've just been catching up on family time after working extra hours over the last weeks. The weekend was a goodie, with a quiet family meal with the in-laws for Thanksgiving. (I say quiet, because there are 8 adults and our two kids in the usual family gathering there. Compare that to the 50 or 60 plus with the R. side of my family, and it's quiet.)

Friday was a relaxing one at home, then a warm sauna at my ma and pa's. Eric worked all weekend.

Saturday the kids, their Nanna and I ran to the cities for a cousin's wedding.

Oliver was very concerned Saturday morning when we were getting ready to leave.

"Mom, I want you to wear a skirt, not a dress." and "Mom, my baby (his baby has lots of opinions) doesn't like big ol' poofy dresses. You should wear a skirt." and on and on. I wasn't sure what he was getting at, but I kept assuring him that yes, I would wear a skirt. (Eric said, "Great, I don't even know the difference between a skirt and dress, but Oliver does...")

Turns out he didn't want us to be in the wedding. The next questions were "Mom, are you gettin' married?" then "Nanna, are you gettin' married?" He was happy to hear us say no, that we were already married, but wasn't fully convinced until after the wedding when he said "You didn't get married!!" with a big, relieved smile.

Maybe the poor kid will be able to relax and enjoy the next cousin's wedding this weekend!

Life is busy!

Magic Pumpkins

My kids, well, they're young. They're just getting to that remember from year to year what different holidays mean stage. So when I launched into a "Hey! Let's carve pumpkins!" announcement, it was met with "Uh, okay. Here we go again, she's lost it" looks.

Never fear. In a stroke of wisdom, I pulled out the new birthday book Elsa got from one of her Uncs (at least I think it was an Unc, the only clue was the address on the package, and we don't know anyone named Amazon.) and we read about Max the bunny and how he went Trick-or-treating with his little orange pumpkin pail. I explained how Oliver had dressed up as Robin Hood (he LOVED Robin Hood,) Elsa wore a cow hat, and they went trick-or-treating last year. Then I explained that trick-or-treating is essentially looking funny and begging for candy. And that another thing people do at Halloween is carve pumpkins.



After that, it went something like this:

"So, should we go carve pumpkins?"


Resounding "Yeah!"

Alright.

Gathers pumpkins, knives, nose-picking-children and husband.


Draw pictures of what we'll carve. Start digging. (Notice Oliver's very apt tshirt. heh.)

Begin carving...
and carving.

And then:

Oliver: "We're gonna carve the pumpkins, and then they'll turn into CANDY!"

Catching on. It's a gradual process.

Snowed in....?

So, here I am. At work. At work, 1 1/2 hours from home. Until 7pm. And its snowing and blowing. And supposed to keep on snowing and blowing. Hm, I wonder what the roads will be like then? Wonderful I'm sure. Well, good thing for the Jeep and four wheel drive! (and hopefully unneeded boots and long johns and shovels and sleeping bags...I came prepared.)


I stayed in DL last night in order to make it to work this morning. I spent the evening doing some Christmas shopping (finally!), and I must say, I'm quite pleased with my success. I love it when I find a few things that I'm sure are 'just the ticket' rather than just okay. Not that Oliver and Elsa are old enough to really care, but I think these are actually gonna get played with for a while! The other things for other people are pretty decent as well. :)


The place I stayed at looked a little 'sketchy' from the outside, but I figured that was a sign of hopefully low prices. It wasn't too bad- (she gave me the 'trucker and stranded nurse rate', heh). Figure what I would have spent on gas, (and stressful driving) well worth it. Anyhow, I was pleasently surprised-the rooms weren't bad, and I even had two whole beds to myself. I contemplated getting up half way through the night and switching, just to get my money's worth.


I didn't.


Anyone at home read this before 7 tonight, let me know what the weather's like there! Thanks.

The wonderful world of family...

We spent Thanksgiving day in the cities with my mom's side of my family. It was a wonderful day, filled with good food and family. (and yes, the pies survived the trip and were enjoyed-I think, since I went for the pumpkin instead...)

There is something about getting together with my mom's side that just speaks of the holidays. I suppose it comes from all the gatherings over the years; when I think of childhood holidays, birthdays or other goings'-on, one thing that comes to mind is cousins..slews of them. There's somewhere around 70 first cousins on that side (hundreds of seconds, I'm sure.) I landed in the middle, I'm not sure where. The middle, a wonderful place to be when it comes to growing up and family.

So this Thanksgiving was kind of amazing to me. I walked into the town hall (no one's house is big enough for all of us..) and walked into a slew of kids. Only this time, I was arriving with my own little ones in tow. Added all together, we realized my Gramma's 50th great-grandchild is 'in the oven' and will arrive sometime this spring. Wow. (and just think, my youngest cousin is around 8 months old...we've a way to go before the final tally...)

I love that we all still get together now and then for things such as the holidays. Not only so I can see everyone and visit, but so Oliver and Elsa get to be in the middle of a slew of cousins. They are the only grandkids in mine and Eric's family, so their experience is so, so different than the one I grew up in. It's wonderful, they are loved and doted on like you wouldn't believe, but yet I love that they get a taste of having cousins around too. It's a wonderful world to experience.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!