The Holidays

So Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful this year. Why? Because we didn't go anywhere.

That's right; I got to have Thanksgiving at MY house. I didn't even get in the car that day. No need... nowhere to go!

Can you tell how giddy that made me?

We started the morning with a nice, long walk around our neighborhood, just Harry, Ellie (in stroller), and me. It was 65 degrees out! On Thanksgiving! The sun was shining, the foliage was in its prime, and there weren't really any cars on the road to boot (which is kind of fantastical and magical seeing as we live on one of the busiest streets in our city). In a word, it was... perfect.

Ellie took her nap around noon, and I started cooking around 1pm. I decided to just do a turkey breast seeing as it was only going to be 4 people.

Harry, Ellie, Alicia... you may be asking yourself, "Who's the 4th?"

My mother-in-law joined us for this festive occasion. And I don't lace that with any amount of sarcasm or rolling of the eyes, I swear.

It was actually NICE having her with us. She was actually PLEASANT. She had a great time playing with the baby, she didn't tell us we were wrong about... well... anything and everything like she usually does, she didn't pout, and she didn't pee in her pants. I was happily amazed.

So anyway, I started cooking at 1pm, and I was done by 3:45pm. Not too shabby.

We had turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, candied yams, mixed vegetables, homemade applesauce, cranberry sauce, and crescent rolls (a Thanksgiving staple in my family). For dessert I made Dirt (cut up devil's food cake with coffee poured over it, chocolate pudding, pieces of Heath candy bar, and whipped cream). It was all delicious!

We watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (the second time already this season), played with Ellie, and had an all-around good time.

And best of all, it was quiet. No screaming, no fighting, no hurt feelings. A first in my family's holiday repertoire.

Since Thanksgiving went so smoothly, we've decided to do the same Christmas afternoon. We always spend so much time house hopping during the holidays, and I'm kind of sick of it.

I've come to realize how important it is for Harry to bring his mom home for the holidays. It's taken me some time to see the error of my ways, always pushing her aside simply because I didn't like her. It's really not fair, to Harry OR to her. She deserves to see us, to spend time with Ellie, to simply not be in that nursing home for a few hours.

So we'll do Christmas Eve upstairs at my sisters and Christmas Breakfast at my mom's, as usual, but we're also going to settle in at our home for once and just enjoy the silence. This way we still get to see everyone, but we get what we want too.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will work.