Yesterday, as I as at my mother's for our annual Thanksgiving dinner (which is dinner part two, mind you!), I took a gander at these.
Out of sheer fear of being trampled to death, Mom and I decided to only go to Target this morning. But not until 9am. The freebie shopping bag was gone in the first hour I heard. In the two hours we were there, we ran into one too many floor displays with the cart, fought off people in the video game isle and were able to get most of the items on both of our lists.
I had this Christmas shopping rage come over me briefly, I mean super brief when I was talking to a Target employee and were ever so rudely interrupted by some twirp of a woman wanting to brag about scoring the TV on special at 5am. I think I shot her a look because she just stood there looking at me...my look must have said, 'A. you are interrupting me, and 2. WHO CARES you got the tv!'.
I had plans to drive way up north to pick up the front door wreath. Not wanting to spend 2.5 hours in the car, I surfed the net for a nursery that was willing to ship the boxwood wreath. Sure enough, the second vendor I looked at had Free Shipping! and the wreath at about the same price as the local nursery. Come to find out ... this online nursery is just next door in Michigan. I am very excited for my new wreath!
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This year I want to enjoy Christmas as best as I can. I want to make the magic come to life. My plans are to document something each day of December. I dont do holiday-ish things each day in December, but I want to celebrate something about December or Christmas each day. Starting December 1st, I will be sharing with you what makes Christmas or December special to me. I encourage you to do the same, take a small amount of time out of each day to cherish somthing about this time of year.
This Thanksgiving, what I am thankful for is different, new.
I usually always put me last in the gratitude list. Its taken me WAY too long to finally put my foot down and put me first. With that said, THE most important thing I am grateful for this year, is my health and having the opportunity to become a mother, something I've dreamed of for so long. I cannot thank my doctor enough nor can I find the right words to express the amount of gratitude I have for him for helping me with this journey. He will forever hold a special place in my heart and my child's heart.
Also new this year, I am grateful for my life experiences. For these I wouldnt have the strength, the wisdom, the compassion and the ability to say, 'not for me, thank you'. I mean this is relatively new....like a few days new. It was a total V8 moment the other day, when I had enough negativity, I decided to delete email communication without even reading it. Do I wonder what it said? Not one bit. So, I thought to myself as I hit the delete button, 'Not for me! Thank you!'.
Lastly, I will ALWAYS be grateful for all my beautiful nieces and nephews. They are my first loves. No matter what they say, do, be, they always make me smile.
Oh wait. One more. My mom. She is my rock. I love you dearly, Mom.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving and be sure to be thankful every day.
My puppies so desperately want to take a walk in these bad boys. How cool would I look strutting through the office or downtown Naperville? People would want to be me! (yeah, right!)
Priorities get in the way sometimes ... baby first, then mama gets a new pair of bad ass boots!
Here we are at the table to have Thanksgiving dinner, part one. Megan is taking the photo and Kelly is looking down at Tyler to make sure he's in the photo. As you can see he is stretching his head into the picture, around this dad!
Missing are my two sisters, three kids and a brother-in-law. That would have made it perfect. What made this dinner really special was the boys sitting with us. Tyler on Kelly's lap, and Charlie on mine. They were able to sit still, eat a little green beans and fruit, and be a part of the dinner. It was great!
Today is the start of Thanksgiving for me. My family is having dinner part 1, so we can celebrate with my brother and his family, as they are spending Thursday with my sister-in-law's family.
Last week I was looking for inspiration for holiday decorating. I have this bag of old photos from my grandparents house. So as I was looking through them all, seeing my grandmother so young and pretty and their house, brought back so many good and warm memories of the holidays spent with them.
I especially found inspiration in this photo taken on Thanksgiving day in 1958. 
On the far left, you can barely see my grandmother, and to her left is my Aunt Dorothy, then Uncle Donald. To my grandmother's right is my Aunt Syrl and finally my mother, Diana. I believe that silver tray sitting next to my mother is actually in my mother's house!
And by the way, totally see my cousin Mandy in this picture ... her mother is Aunt Syrl!
This year begins a new chapter of holidays in my life. I am no longer by myself for the holidays, I will always have my bean with me. This brings a completely different meaning to the holidays. I like this feeling!
I've been searching around for a unique tech-y gadget for my 13 year old nephew for Christmas. I was surfing a bunch of websites today, and came across this. I am not sure exactly how its suppose to work, with your head in a TV!. I have done nothing but chuckle at the concept of this gadget! Do share your thoughts on this...
Edited - Kelly shared some of her photos on Facebook the other day, here are two that captured the boys elbows deep in cake!
**Thanks for sharing these Kelly!
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Today was the twinkies 1st birthday party. They did surprising well with all the people in their house. I am very proud of them doing their best. Andrew and Kelly threw a great party and of course, are doing an awesome job with the boys!
Charlie spent most of the party just walking around from room to room, not really stopping anywhere for longer than 30 seconds. He just likes to walk and be mobile. Tyler, he was definitely into the gifts. Wanted to know what was inside! Take a look below!
Oh My Goodness! So excited!
Let me see whats in this bag!
Ok, enough of the last gift, what's in this bag!
A Card! If I shake it enough will something come out of it? (Charlie decided to stop for a card shake too!)
I cleared off the table of gifts, whats on the floor??
I like this card!
WOW! Elmo chairs! What a great gift!
Dont be talking smack about my Elmo chair, got it?
This is the last picture I was able to get with my camera, then my battery died. The boys got a slice of cake each, and I think were a bit gun shy of touching it or eating it with 25 people all staring at them. They eventually figured it out and Charlie was all about the cake! Tyler, I think he just like feeling it. They were covered in it, so straight into the tub they went! It was a great party!
Happy Birthday Charlie + Tyler!
I never really thought of my family as a military family. Probably because I didnt have a parent in the military. Though today, with it being Veteran's Day, I realize that we are a military family.
It all started with my grandfather, a WW2 veteran. Then it would be my dad attending military college. My step-father was in the Air Force for some time. And it moves on to my oldest sister marrying a man in the Army and my middle sister marrying a man in the Air Force. My sister-in-law's father was a veteran of the Korean war (i think, i could be wrong..but he was in some war!).
Currently my brother-in-law who is part of the Air Force is serving our country in Kuwait. I can safely speak for the entire family that we are extremely proud of Geno, and are SO looking forward to his return.
I had stopped by my mother's tonight to help her with her new picture scanner toy ... and I go into the entertainment center to grab a photo to use while learning this new toy. It just happened to be this photo. (I literally grabbed the first photo at my fingertips) How appropriate, my grandfather, or as the family calls him, Pop-pop, in his Army uniform shirt and hat. He was SO proud.
Happy Veteran's Day Pop-pop!
*circa 1994
There has to be nothing more rewarding then seeing your children show affection for each other. Especially when they can have such different personalities. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with Kelly and the twinkies. They are so damn cute. They are sick right now, but they still found the energy to walk, crawl, get into things, play, smile, laugh. Tyler with his non-stop runny nose and Charlie with his deep hoarse voice.
Kelly and I were able to witness the brotherly love between these two last night when they decided during their playing they would kiss each other. It was cutest thing. And I believe Kelly's heart had swooned to about the size of Texas after she saw it.
Then when it was time for bed, Charlie went down with no fussing. Tyler, since he is in the heart of this cold, he had a little harder time. He cried for a while. Then as Kelly and I sat on the couch just waiting it out, determining if Tyler needed to be picked up, Charlie started talking. He probably was saying, 'Its okay brother...just close your eyes, relax, and you'll feel better'. Sure enough, shortly after that, Tyler stopped crying.
These two will be one on Thursday. Can you believe it? One year of having these two little beautiful creatures in our lives. I dont remember life without them. (Well, I do, but its so much better now that they are around!).
A couple weeks back, I went with my friend Rich to see Kathy Griffin live. I snapped this right before we went in for 90 minutes of smiles and laughter. This is one of those photos I have taken of the city that just warms my heart.
