Thanksgiving 2024

We spent the quietest Thanksgiving EVER on Thursday.  Andrew made us omelets for breakfast with hash browns, and dinner consisted of sausage.  I worked on Christmas cards, and we watched lots of football. We finished the day with some episodes of our favorite show, and some Thanksgiving episodes of Friends.  It was a pleasant day.

Andrew took his mom back yesterday, and a neighbor was kind enough to meet them part way so he was able to be home last night.  Catherine has decided to be here all weekend, so we had some potato soup and watched some Christmas movies.  I'll be honest, my heart hurt a bit last night evening as I was missing our pup, and also missing Thomas as well.  This is what we strive for, that our kids are on their own, but there are plenty of moments when I miss the little people.

Today is the big college football rivalry game, and this year the Buckeyes should be in good shape.  We still have all day today and tomorrow to enjoy our Thanksgiving weekend and look forward to the holidays!

Making memories

Here we are, at the day before Thanksgiving, and I am looking at my nicely decorated Christmas tree.  I have ALWAYS refused to decorate before Thanksgiving, but since we ate on Sunday, and especially since Thanksgiving is so late this year, bring it on!

It actually happened in an unplanned way.  I was working on getting the trees up for planned decorating this evening.  Thomas texted as he was off work early and they were actually in the area in early afternoon.  I was happy to accept extra help in getting the trees put together and with lights, and Andrew was happy to have some help with the outside lights.  Everyone worked all afternoon, and after a quick break of pizza for dinner, the trees were all decorated by 7:30 last evening.  Thomas's fiance specifically mentioned how much she had enjoyed helping and sharing in this tradition.  The tree is full of so very many memories.  Andrew became a bit emotional as there are so many ornaments for our sweet pup.  She was included every year.   Thomas wanted to take some of his favorite ornaments with him.  It was fine, but I insisted on taking pictures! We laughed, but those memories are important to me as well.  In fact, apparently he was complaining to his fiance (let's call her Lynn, going forward) that the tree at their apartment only had "generic" ornaments on it.  I'm grateful these traditions and memories mean as much to them as they do to me.

Thanksgiving week 2024

Starting last year, the public school district and my little school decided to be off the entire week of Thanksgiving.  This, my friends, is brilliant.  I am all for celebrating the holidays in an extended manner!

It also made our decision to switch things up a bit even easier.  Thomas loves his in-law-to-be family, and they adore him.  I knew he would want to spend as much time as possible with them on Thanksgiving, and I didn't want our meal to feel rushed.  Since it is so few of us, I decided that we could do Thanksgiving yesterday, and we all agreed we loved it that way.  Andrew and his mom made a lovely meal, and it was a wonderful afternoon.

I don't deny, it is a bit different when your own kids have to come "home" for the holidays.  I really wanted to make sure we were able to decorate the tree together, and that was another reason for moving Thanksgiving up a few days.  I refuse to eat Thanksgiving in a home already decorated for Christmas, so in order to make it all happen given Thomas's work restraints, this was the best plan.  And with Thanksgiving being so late this year, it really feels as though it is extending the Christmas holiday!  I'll be honest though, I kind of forget that others are still getting ready for Thanksgiving.

We have a few plans this week, but we also have lots of time to relax and to decorate.  Life is full of so many blessings, and I'm so very grateful!

A weekend in the middle of November

A week from today we will have celebrated our Thanksgiving.  We are doing it early for a variety of reasons, and we are thrilled about it.  We still have a week of work though.

Andrew is at his mom's this weekend.  He had tickets to the Steelers game, and WOW!  What a game to get to see!  It was a huge victory over the Ravens.  A friend of his flew in from LA to go to the game with him.  He'll be back tomorrow, and he is bringing his mom with him for eleven days.  I'm so thrilled to have her here!

Thomas spent a lot of time here this weekend, and it was wonderful and different all at the same time.  It was wonderful in that he was here for about seven hours today.  With him living with his girlfriend, I had wondered if I'd ever have time with just him again.  I loved having him here.  At the same time, it was different.  He admitted it felt a little strange that he doesn't have a room here anymore where he can hang out.  I've assured him he is always welcome to be here anytime at all that he wants to be, and he can sleep here if he wants.

It feels so strange to be heading into the end of the year.  It really doesn't feel like it's been that long since we did Thanksgiving and Christmas last year.  I can't say that I'll say 2024 has been my favorite year, but I'm grateful to be here and living it.

Today marks eleven years without my dad

Eleven years ago, right about now and also on a Thursday, I found out my dad had passed away.  I'm so grateful my kids got to know him and make so many memories with him.  I'm also very grateful he wasn't here with us to experience all the painful things we've experienced through parenting.  I'll miss Dad forever, but I'm thankful my faith tells me I get to see him again.

A day off by myself

Today is a teacher work day at my school, and I am thrilled to be off work.  During the school year, it is really challenging to take off days "just because" (or as I like to think of them, mental health days), but when the students aren't there it is much easier!  I asked for this a month ago, right after the week from hell when I was the only admin working most of the week and we had teachers out left and right.  In other words, when they didn't dare tell me I couldn't! 😂

Yesterday I finished painting Thomas's room.  It's the exact same colors, but we joke that his room was a toxic haz mat dump and everything needed refreshing.  I always channel my dad when I'm painting, because we were the painters in the family.  I also found my self spending the day listening to 90's country music, and that was quite a trip down memory lane!

I'm so very acutely feeling the passage of time lately.  The upcoming holidays have me feeling incredibly reflective this year, and a bit melancholy, and I'm just not sure where the time has gone.  I'm so very grateful for this afternoon where I can spend some quiet time with my thoughts.  A lot of those thoughts also involve our sweet pup whom we miss so much.  Those are sad thoughts as well, but there is so, so much to be grateful for, and this is the month to remember that!

An afternoon in my hometown

I made a trip to my hometown today.  I stopped to see my grandmother for just a few minutes.  She wasn't having a great day, but I'm glad I was able to see her.  I then met my friend, Heather, for lunch.  It was a quick lunch, and a nice visit.  I then did some shopping at the local stores, and I was able to see another high school friend who owns some of the businesses.  And lastly, I ran into my cousin.  It was a fairly quick trip, but a very nice trip.

Upon getting home, I began painting (what was) Thomas's bedroom.  My mother-in-law arrives in nine days and she needs to sleep in there.  Painting always causes me to channel my dad, and we are only give days until the anniversary of his passing.  I was also listening to a 90's Country channel, and lots of memories came flooding in with those songs as well.

I'm so grateful for this weekend.  And I'm especially grateful that I am taking Monday off work and get an even longer weekend! 

It was a busy weekend but a lot fun

This past weekend I didn't get to watch much football, and I'm okay with that.  We did get to see OSU knock off Penn St, and that was fun.  Saturday evening we drove to my hometown to celebrate my cousin's 60th birthday.  It was a surprise for her, and in addition to friends, there were 16 family members there.  I'm also friends with the owners of the bar, and they came over to see us as well.  We were home by 10, and then we gained an hour overnight.  My kind of night!

Saturday was Remembrance Sunday at church, and I just couldn't stand the thought of dealing with all of my emotions and sitting there.  We had lunch plans with very dear friends and then we had dinner plans with Thomas and his girlfriend.  For various reasons, it was the third trip I'd made that week to his apartment.  Andrew and I both agreed as we were driving around the Dayton area, that we really missed being there.  We love our house and our yard, but miss that area.  

I only have twelve more working days until a week off for Thanksgiving, and I'm really looking forward to that!

It's safe to say it wasn't my favorite October

Without a doubt, this will NOT go down as my favorite October.  Losing Lincoln at the beginning of the month was hard, but losing Abby two weeks ago was awful.  The other night, Andrew and I had to make an unexpected trip to Thomas's place, and it was Midnight before we got home.  As we pulled in, I thought about how happy Abby was going to be to see us, then I remembered the reality and I began to weep.  I explained to Andrew how I had forgotten, just for a second, that she was gone, and it hurt so deeply again.  She was just the best dog.

Anyway, between this and some drama in our kids' lives, I'm hoping November is a better month.  I'm trying so hard to remember it can always be worse and to hold on to peaceful thoughts as much as I can!