Thanksgiving Weekend

My In-Laws moved to Rushford a few years ago which is around 45 minutes away. It has gotten a little difficult since then to arrange the holidays for our families. My MIL realizing this has tried to make it a little easier all the way around by planning holiday celebrations for weekends before or after holidays. This lets us all spend time together without being rushed to get somewhere else or to get the kids to bed. We left on Friday after the girls got up from their naps and headed out to Rushford for a nice weekend and Thanksgiving feast with the Herdics.
My MIL goes out of her way to make us all comfortable and waits on us hand and foot. Grammy and Grampa got the WII for themselves (and the family too) as their Christmas present this year so we spent a lot of time playing with that, we got a little competitive and ran some tournaments which was a riot.

Saturday was the day we celebrated Thanksgiving, Warren and Jimmy went hunting (well Jim hunted, Warren walked along), and after an amazing dinner Warren and Jim took the kids outside to play in the snow while we cleaned up the kitchen. This was really the first time Grace has played in the snow, and it was the first for Ellie this year. She has been really begging to play outside and she was thrilled that she got to do it with her big cousin, Brayden.

Once all the kids got inside it was time for dessert. While we were enjoying our pie, Uncle Jim was teasing Grammy a little too much...Grammy threatened that she was going to put the last bite of pie and whipped cream in Uncle Jim's face. There was something about the glint in Grammy's eyes that told me she was not kidding, so I ran for the camera...SHE DID IT! It was hysterical, and afterwords, Grammy said it was the wildest thing she ever did in her whole life. I am so glad that I got to see it.

Warren and I are amazingly blessed with each other, our girls and our families. There is so much to be grateful for, and I so am.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The picture is typical of my girls... All dressed up, get them set for the picture and someone is NOT HAPPY!

We spent Thanksgiving Day with my family this year. Usually we celebrate with my Mom's extended family, but this was the first year my parents just had our family and my sister's family there. We had a really nice time, great company, amazing dinner (of course my pies for dessert) some wine, and of course some WII playing too. It was a little more quiet than usual, well...except for my kids, and a few squeaks from Claire here and there.

Oh, wait, now that I am thinking about it, Aunt Patti got a little riled up, getting Ellie riled up and had Ellie singing quite loudly while playing her little guitar. THAT was not so much quiet...(but it was funny)

We brought the girls home, got them in bed, grabbed a beer and caught "The Notebook" on TV together. Warren and I almost NEVER watch movies together, much less a romantic movie, all moons in the universe must have been aligned! It was the perfect ending to a great day!

Catharsis

Last week Wednesday, an Orchard Park graduate and Geneseo student was walking on a street in Geneseo, NY when she walked into the road and was struck by a semi truck. She was a very good friend of one of the staff members I work closely with, and also used to work at the Boys & Girls Club. The community of Orchard Park is small and tight knit and this has rippled down touching everyone. Strangely, on Tuesday, the staff member was speaking of this friend to me, telling me of her promising academic and sports careers. I did not ever have the fortune of meeting this person in life, and find the tragedy of her death haunting. She hung on until some time on Sunday, and the family was able to donate many of her organs.

I can't imagine how this affects members of this girl's family, extended family, friends, her long term boyfriend and his family, anyone who's life this girl touched. I came home and hugged Ellie so tight, and as we sat watching her show before she went to bed that night, all I could think was that's not how things are supposed to go in this life. This is not the way it is supposed to be. How do you look at a child you have loved and nurtured into a beautiful human being and let them go. It's not our choice, I realize this, no one person would make that choice, not ever. The choice becomes picking up the pieces of what remains of your life after losing someone you love.

For people like me, a person on the outside not looking through grief stricken eyes, the choice becomes what do you take away from a tragedy like this. The one thing I personally take from this is to make the most of the time I have with the people I love. I would never expect to always be exempt from hardship or tragedy, and acknowledging this means also being "prepared" to a certain extent for that. It is imperative to me that the people who are important to me know that, they know that they are loved by me, and should there come a point when things are not rosy between myself and anyone I love, I owe it to myself and them to clear it up and move on. Life is too short for grudges, and it is also too short to spend upset and pissed off at the world.

I had someone ask me in regard to this tragedy how you can look at a situation like this and still have faith. I believe that people who have faith, have it through these times. To me, faith is being able to look at a situation, any situation, and see God's hand in it. When people ask "how could God let this happen, what kind of God would let this happen to such good people", I understand. I don't think faith is never questioning or having all the answers, or always being able to see the answers. To me, faith is knowing and trusting that there ARE answers even if you don't know what they are, and might not ever know.

After my Papa passed away, which was to me, the single most devastating loss of my life, I wrote this of death and faith:

"The story of life is punctuated by Death-

Faith allows it not to be an ending such as a period, or question mark, but a place to emphasize with a pause allowing reflection, and then continuation to the end of your story."

"Laura"

Ellie and Grace have been playing this new game together, and it cracks me up. They grab Sadie's leash, and Ellie puts Gracie on it, by her collar, or her belt loops. Ellie then tells Gracie, "GET DOWN, LAURA". That's Ellie's new dog's name, Laura. More and more they play together and it is soo funny. Ellie helps Gracie get dressed in dress up clothes, and they play in their kitchen for longer and longer together. This is not to say that they don't fight. I have said that I spend considerable time playing police. So much so that I say I was as qualified as Sara Palin to be VP with my diplomacy skills, but I digress...Enjoy the pictures of our girls actually playing nicely together...

Halloween!!

What a riot.

Ellie was SOOOO excited for Halloween this year. We went trick or treating with Aunt Patti, Uncle J and Paity. It doesn't get any better than that, especially in Ellie's book. We have started a mini tradition of trick or treating in my Parent's neighborhood, its a great place to take the kids trick or treating.

Ellie was "Mariposa" the butterfly fairy, and Gracie was a flower. I thought for sure Ellie would want to be Hannah Montana (which is who Paityn was), she is OBSESSED with her. No, Ellie had her own ideas. I want to be a butterfly. (although originally said she and Gracie were going to be medicine, "Gracie will be that yucky kind, and I will be Grapey Grape"). Ellie trooped all around the neighborhood like a pro, "trick or treat, thank-you, Happy Halloween" she killed us. She was flying high. Gracie wasn't too far behind even though we were out much past bed time, she was saying "trick or treat" too.

Super fun night!

Fun New Game

This is a picture of Ellie playing a fun new game we play in our house. We haven't been getting outside as much lately with my work schedule combined with the weather. I got an email from Babycenter.com, (a site I have used for parenting information since I was pregnant with Ellie) as I do monthly for each of the girls (kind of like ideas for what milestones the might be hitting, what things kids their ages are going through etc.). The email was for Grace and suggested that letting her jump off a low stool would help her to develop balance and jump on her own...

Thus the stool game was born. We grab pillows from all the beds and lay them on the floor and let the girls jump from their bathroom stools onto them. Give us a little bit of outdoor type fun inside, and the girls think this is the jam!