Friday, November 14, 2014

Holiday Traditions

As the holidays are fast approaching some of our Holiday Traditions begin with when we’ll be visiting family in California.  This year it’s for Thanksgiving.  Since we drive down I actually prefer going in November because there is a lot less snow and ice. I love taking the dogs to the beach to run and play and the warmer temps make it more enjoyable for us all.

Our drive down typically has us stopping to visit long time friends in the Sacramento area before heading south to spend the holiday week with our families. While we get to visit with them the dogs have a blast in the large fenced yard playing with our friend’s son. I think besides the beach it’s what they look forward to every year.  They get super excited as we pull into the driveway and literally pull us to the house. The other must is In n Out burger. I've actually made a list of where they are for the drive down this year.

Once we get to our hotel we break up the week with a day to visit each family cluster with Thanksgiving Day with Don’s family. Usually after Thanksgiving we will stop at Don’s parents for breakfast before we head out to drive home.  We once again stop in at our friend’s place for the night and head out early the next day for the longest portion of the drive home – 12 hours.  I drink lots of coffee that day.

Once we get home the real fun for me begins.  After unpacking I get to drag out all the Christmas decorations and begin decorating while I listen to Christmas music or watching my favorite holiday movies. Christmas is my favorite holiday by far.  I will probably pull the boxes out and put them upstairs before we leave this year since Thanksgiving is so late in the month. On years when we’re home we go to the farm and get our tree the day after Thanksgiving and I spend the day decorating it. Then over the next few days, as the tree settles, I will move things around. I can’t wait to share getting the tree and the decorating with our little one.
Colin loves to play with the trains around the tree

Once the weekend hits we move outside to put out the lights. I love just sitting outside with nothing but the shine from the Christmas lights. I enjoy seeing all the decorations as I drive down the streets; we have some spectacularly decorated homes on our street.  We go with the basics though, Santa in a sleigh on the roof and lights around the house and garage.

I love cooking and baking for my family during the holidays and can’t wait to share that with our future child.  I remember doing that with my mom and aunts every year and can’t wait to pass it in. So we host Christmas most years sometimes for my whole extended family and others just my immediate family. When it’s just a small gathering rather than use china, I always have fun bringing out the Looney Tunes Fiesta Ware for Christmas dinner.  Other people use china and I go with a fun approach more than a formal one.  It’s always fun asking the nephews what character they want and setting it all up on the table. This year will just be us, my mom and her husband and my nephew and it’ll be Christmas Eve dinner instead of Christmas day. I don’t mind though as we want to spend time with my nephew and with his mom having Christmas off this year, Christmas Eve is the day.
wish they still made these

My mom no longer eats meat so I called to ask about certain dishes this year for the Christmas dinner and our nephew yelled out I want ham! Well OK I guess we’re having ham and lots of Veggie dishes. Don will be on board with that since he’d rather not eat 2 week’s worth of turkey in a 4 week span. This seems to be a new tradition we’re forming after I made ham for Colin last year.

We will wind down the holidays on New Year’s Eve by watching the movie of the same name, playing games and then watching the ball drop in Times Square or watch the Space Needle fireworks. We don’t like going out unless it’s to our friend’s place earlier in the day and then we just stay the night.  We don’t want to be out on the road.

Friday, November 7, 2014

November is National Adoption Month

I've been reading a lot of quotes and statements so far this month and prior (thanks Pinterest) and I thought I’d say what open adoption means to us.

Adoption is a journey without a time frame

Adoption is not for the faint of heart or weak of patience

Adoption is “The Wait”

Adoption is the path to fulfill our dreams of becoming parents

Adoption is not an easy path to parenthood

Adoption is a way to bring us joy with an extended family

Adoption is about trust

Adoption is about loss for all involved

Adoption is stressful

Adoption is an expectant mom making the choice out of love for her child and herself

Adoption is the community that brings you up when you’re down

Adoption teaches you to play to your strengths; you will need them in the wait

Adoption is about living everyday waiting for the phone to ring, email to come in, or text

Open Adoption is about families coming together

The Adoption Wait is taking vacations to take your mind off the waiting

Adoption is having faith and hope that your child finds you

Adoption is about the child having a connection to their birth families

Adoption is a unique journey for all involved

Adoption is going to be so worth it!