11.30.2010

The One Where Thanksgiving Was Exactly What it Should Be

This past week I have been delinquently MIA from pretty much all computer activity. This was not necessarily on purpose, but my life evolved into a tech-free zone with family visiting, babies arriving, and much merriment to be had around the national stuff-your-face-holiday, Thanksgiving.

My parents and littlest sister, Emily, rushed into town the Friday before Thanksgiving because my most adorable and all-things-sweet-and-cute niece was on her way! They arrived around 9:00 pm and we all promptly visited Starbucks to pump our bodies full of caffeinated peppermint mochas and egg nog lattes for the long night ahead of us.

As it turns out Cynthia, my eldest sister in labor at the time, needed some rest so everyone but my mom and JP (Cynthia's fiance) headed home around 11:45 expecting a middle of the night phone call we all hit the sack.


By the next morning it was apparent that the labor wasn't progressing as we all had hoped and Cynthia was exhausted. At noon on November 20th, they decided to go ahead with a c-section to get little Annalee out of there and into the bright world of love that awaited her. Now...here is where I feel like a crap Aunt.

I had a hair appointment at noon. I had scheduled this several months in advance and desperately needed some work done AND thought I could be back in time for a first look at Annalee with JP through the glass after the c-section. Turns out c-sections take like 30 mins and I missed out on those very precious moments first glimpses through the nursery viewing window for cell phone pictures, oo's and ahh's, and tears.

I missed it. and I really really regret it...However, luckily I didn't miss out on the first no-glass meet and greet with the little one. And like I mentioned here she is perfect. And has such a sweet temperament. And I could hold her all day every day and never get sick of it. And just talking about her makes my heart hurt a little bit because of how much I miss her right now.


The next few days after Annalee's arrival were a blur of hospital visits, big moves from hospital to home, adjustments for my sister, adjustments for the baby, etc, etc. (everyone is doing very nicely now - BTW)

Before I knew it Thanksgiving eve was upon us and mom and I did one really serious shopping trip to fill 1.25 carts full of enough food to feed an army and then went home for approximately 5.75 hours of pie baking (I made 1 killer apple pie, and 1 pumpkin pie all by myself!) and food prep for the big day. It was painfully obvious how out of shape I am because just standing for that long made my legs hurt....Oy Vey!

Thanksgiving day was exactly as it should be. I woke up, and because of urging from Emily and because I wanted to enjoy the day guilt free, we went for a run. Didn't get far (maybe 1.25 miles) but nearly died and definitely burned some calories. I crashed in front of the couch and zoned out at the giant commercial we call entertainment, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, then showered and started cooking around 11:30.

Making a big meal is somewhat like being a conductor of a professional orchestra or maybe a bomb defusing specialist. The timing has to be exactly right or everything will fall apart and you will lose your patrons/ everything will explode and your patrons will die.

Thus - much team work was needed between all people involved. Mom and I made all the side dishes (corn pudding, green bean casserole, sweet potato souffle, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn - Hello starchville!) Dad manned the gravy, 22 lb turkey, and excessive-but-necessary chex mix and Emily may or may not have burnt the rolls, but we got everything to the table in time for a feast that probably would have been enough food for 20. We still have quite a few leftovers in our fridge.

after the meal i promptly passed out on the couch from a tryptophan hangover and didn't wake up till it was dark outside and my tummy notified me it was time for something a bit sweet. (apple pie!!!)

Literally, the remainder of the weekend I think the girls did was one of 5 things:

  1. Watch movies - mostly of the Christmas genre, but we may or may not have watch Boondock Saints and Elf back to back.
  2. Eat - Leftovers, pizza, sausage casserole Friday morning, more left overs, more pizza. It was glorious.
  3. Drink Coffee - my family knows how to put away coffee like a bear preparing for hibernation knows how to put away...whatever bears eat (berries? bunnies? humans?) Probably should have thought of a better analogy that I actually knew the second part to...
  4. Puzzles - We did one and a half 1,000 piece puzzles while my family was here. They left me with the hard half of a very hard puzzle to finish on my own and I realized last night that every time I closed my eyes before bed I could not stop picturing puzzle pieces! 
  5. Stare at Annalee - We are staring at her like willow does at the food on a visitors plate. 



The remainder of the week the guys did one of 2 things:
  1. Fix Stuff: Our house is old. it's falling apart. they fixed our kitchen sink (which broke again after Josh fixed it 3 months ago), Our refrigerator (which might still be broken) our bathroom's leaky valves (which ended up being a much bigger ordeal than anyone anticipated including tearing tiles off the walls, not being able to find matching tiles, grout and dirt everywhere, and so on, and so on). I'm so thankful for this being done, though! I think it will save money on our water/heating bill in the future. Thanks Josh and Dad!
  2. Watch sports: Notre Dame game, Florida game, OSU dominating Michigan game, Predators hockey game. 
Wish I would have gotten more sleep during the break, but it was so good to be with family. I got to spend some quality time with my sister Emily and my mom. I'm quite thankful that I will get to see all of them (plus rebecca - my 3rd sister) again very soon.

And one more for the road....just because.

2 comments:

  1. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this! Laughed several times.

    We did have fun, didn't we?

    I love you and the way you write. It's real.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm so thankful for your blog.
    Not only is it a much appreciated family event update, it also is my break (here at 6:30 am) from working on this paper...

    ReplyDelete