We had a nice little Thanksgiving weekend..Ryan had some jobs to do here and there (which we were THANKFUL for, but he got to stay home for a lot of it) I have to admit, Thanksgiving did NOT start off with a very thankful vibe. Unfortunately it started out..the way most holidays start out (which sucks), with fighting of where we will go...what family..how much time..trying to coordinate it with the kids naps so we don't have to deal with grumpy children all day..if you have kids maybe you can relate? Both of the kids happened to wake up at 5:00 that morning so naps were a definite must. Ryan's family was doing their get together during Finley's nap time ..so she and i were going to stay home while Ryan and Curren went...well since Curren got up at 5, he needed to take a nap otherwise he would be a beast at my family's house in the afternoon..Ryan ended up just staying home with us, while they napped, since he didn't want to go to his family's for just an hour then have to come back to go to mine. So we ended up figuring it out..coming to an agreement that from now on we will just swap years back and forth and just go one place, cause it's just too much stress trying to be everywhere at one time. Maybe things will be easier when we don't have napping kids and we can drag them all over. So we ended up just going to one place, the whole day and it was really fun for everyone! We went to my cousin's who lives two houses up and she had the whole house so beautiful and inviting and a huge table with cute little name tags for everyone, crafts for the kids..the whole 9 she and her husband went all out...TONS of food, and all the kids played and had a great time. We were going to do dessert at another house, but the kids were tired and it was time to go. Holidays are hard around here, I have a lot of family with lots of traditions, and Ryan's family has their traditions, and it seems like no one is every happy when trying to find a balance of your time. Such is married life right? Two families- gotta work it out. The day ended up really nice, and not stressful..everyone was fat and happy :) I'd be interested to hear how you guys do things with your families.
these are our little cousins singing a Thanksgiving Day song, and reading a prayer they wrote for the family, it was so sweet..they remembered family members that are no longer with us..and really wrapped up what Thanksgiving is all about.
Curren dancing on his seat, and doing the ROBOT dance out front of the Nokia Theater
It was a serious show! It was so cool to see all the kids totally FREAK OUT when the characters came out, and I have to admit...I was totally stoked to see the real DJ Lance! He's so cool with all his wild moves. BIZ was the best part for me! He totally got this little tiny white girl named Madeline to bust out some serious beats, it was awesome!! He got the crowd really going. It was such a great show, and I loved seeing Curren so excited and just in awe! I love going on little dates with him, my best little buddy.
We ate at the ESPN zone, chicken fingers and fries all around! Pella was so sweet just chattin it up and being her silly self. Curren really loves Pella, and couldn't keep his paws off her! Next year we will have to do it again!
We finished off the weekend by going to the Ventura Harbor to see a little tide pool exhibit they have out there (FREE FYI!) it was a great way to wrap up the fun weekend. Now I'm looking outside at the Christmas lights twinkling and can't wait for the holiday season to come. It's going to be so fun this year!
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| "Don't take my PICTURE MOM!!!" |
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| Van baby is getting large and he is definitely in charge of my body. Oh and got my test results back and everything is AOKAY...PHEW. So thanks for your good thoughts and prayers :) I can't wait to meet my littlest man!!! 2.5 more months to go |
The family drama has to be the most difficult part of the holidays...something I used to dread until we finally worked it all out. We were the only ones who had young children yet everyone expected us to to travel to them and then we had to juggle nap times, drag tons of baby equipment with us (pack-n-play, travel highchairs, etc)...not to mention bottles, formula, diapers, changes of clothes. I swear, it felt like we were moving every time we had to travel to a relative's home during the holidays.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I had had enough one year and insisted we stay home and told everyone if they wanted to see us, they were more than welcome to come to our home. That was the first year we had NO stress! And everyone actually did travel to our home so that was nice.
Now, that our kids are a little older, we have a little bit of an easier time but somehow we've managed to still keep the same routine around the holidays. We stay here for Thanksgiving and family is welcome here in our home. At Christmas, we travel to my BIL's home on Christmas eve and then we stay home on Christmas day. Family usually comes over on that day, too.
I think your plan to go back and forth each year between your family and your husband's family is a great idea. Trying to stuff so many visits into one day with your children (and with a small baby next year) is just too stressful. Let them come to you or just go to one person's house per day. That's definitely the way to go!
Love all the pics! Only in Southern CA can you get away with wearing t-shirts and shorts at Thanksgiving!! I'm in Northern CA and it was pretty chilly here (foggy too!)
That last pic is awesome!!! What a great idea to take a pic of your pregnant shadow!!
That sounds like a good plan :) Our only problem with having people here is we have a teeny tiny house! Big yard but small house.
ReplyDeleteMy mom's side of the family does something they call the Scepter...whoever has a kid under 2 (or napping age) they get to pick the time for family events and I SO appreciate them being so accomodating to us...we've had the scepter for awhile now haha...christmas eve will be the next battle cause my family does a huge event and ryan's does their xmas on xmas eve night too, so we'll see how that goes! where in nor cal are you?