Our Little Picasso

Great news!!! I thought it would be another week before I posted, but with being off and home for the last few days I'm finding myself with some time to share some family events.

Today I decided that I would try to do an art project with Katherine. At school she's done some art projects and I figured, if the teachers at daycare can do them with 8 kids and I never see a drop of paint on her, why can't I do it with one little girl. (I'll give you a moment to stop laughing.)

I knew it wouldn't be a clean event. I mean I was giving her fingerpaint and paper and letter her go at it. First thing I thought of is, what can she wear that I won't care if it gets ruined? I looked through her closet and found nothing. Her clothes are too cute... but then I found one outfit I'd be willing to risk for the cause. I brought it to Katherine and as I was changing her I thought... she's got the perfect outfit right here. A diaper!!! YEAH!!!!

I laid out a plastic covered tablecloth and we both sat on it and got to work. Katherine enjoyed putting her hands in the paint, squishing it out the sides and then rubbing it on her legs. I tried to explain to her that her legs were not to be the primary recipient of her paint... rather the paper should be. We finally came to an understanding and got to work. We made 7 "pictures". We tried two different kinds of paint. Fingerpaint and then plain old crayola paint. I highly recommend the plain old crayola washable non-toxic paint. The fingerpaint comes out a little funky colored. Katherine didn't much mind though. She seemed to enjoy the event nearly as much as I did. We both laughed and yelled and Daddy rolled his eyes at us saying - "You're both a mess!!!" and "Mommy's crazy!!!!" Yes. And Yes. Proudly. :)

Katherine also tried Lorna Doone's today. Just a little bit. She quite liked it. :)

Stephen made her "homemade" babyfood: carrots & snap peas. The carrots were a big hit. She ate them all day yesterday and for lunch today. This afternoon he made snap peas. We tried those for dinner and I'll say they weren't near as big a hit as the carrots. Girlfriend is not digging the peas. I promise I'm trying to get her to eat them too. I even tried tricking her tonight. It's a mother's right!!! She at all her squash, after totally rejecting the peas. Then it was time for bananas. As we were finishing the bananas I gave her a spoon of peas. She spit it right back out at me. I tried again. She razberried me. Then, the little turkey, starts pretend coughing. Her new favorite trick. Oh yeah. She pretends. Eh Eh Eh. Her real cough is much different. What a turkey!!! Stephen witnessed her reaction to peas tonight. Even he thought it was made up. We've got ourselves a drama queen. *sigh* I have no idea where she gets that from. hehehe

Oh, a lesson I learned last week that I forgot to share. Baby is NOT ready to be carried on one's shoulders. No, I didn't drop her, for heaven's sake.

I thought it would be fun to put her on my shoulders and walk around downstairs. She sits up fine and all was well for a moment or two. We were showing daddy when all of the sudden I felt something warm sliding down my head. No, a bird did not poop on me. Katherine "spit up" on me. In my hair. Down my clothes. Onto the floor. Yup. This also got me to thinking.... The next time I have a little too much to drink and I show everyone the carrots I ate earlier in the evening, can I call that "spit up"? It seems so much better received than saying "puked" or "barfed". This goes along with my theory of, if you lick (put something in your mouth, chew, etc.) something you must buy it. Again, I'll be remembering that the next time Katherine and I are in the Coach store and Stephen's limiting my purchase to one clearance purse. Humfp. Ohhhh Katherine.... Want to hold this cute purse Mommy likes?? Oh no, dear, don't put that in your mouth.... Darn. I guess I'll have to buy it now. :)

Fingerpainting Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/MyFirstFingerpainting#

On the Move!!!

Before I begin this week's posting let me say to all of our loyal readers... Sorry for the late posting!! To make a long story short (I'll go into detail later)... Over that last week I have been unable to type due to a mishap that occurred with molten lava (AKA sweet potatoes). But alas, I'm here an doing my part to ensure family, friends and most importantly Stephen, stays updated on our family. You see, Stephen reads the blog to find out "what's happening with my family". Silly man.

Where did I last leave off? Since I'm not quite sure what happened towards the end of last week I'll start with last weekend. :)

Saturday we hosted our annual holiday party. I think we had RSVPs for about 45 people to attend. I know, quite a showing, right?! Who knew we KNEW 45 people, let alone had 45 people who liked us enough to come to our house!? We were quite excited.

We decided, as we have in years previous, we would not cook for the event. No, we didn't tell our guests to starve it out or brown bag it. We did the only noble thing... and had it catered. Well, if you call Boston Market catered that's what we did. We ordered one complete turkey dinner and a complete ham dinner. Presto... food is prepared. Well, sort of. You see, this is when the "sweet potato incident of 2008" occurred. The Boston Market meal requires you to heat the food prior to serving. Novel idea. Most of the heating can be done via microwave. The big things (turkey and ham) go into the oven. We had prepared all of the appetizers and had gotten items ready for the super scrumptious chocolate fountain that we were having for dessert.

Let me set the stage for "the incident". I'd taken a shower, Katherine was sleeping in her swing and Stephen still needed to take a shower. It was 5pm. Stephen was in the process of heating the sides in the microwave. (Molten Lava preparer) The party was set to begin at 5:30pm. I sent Stephen to take a shower and he (attempted) to give me instructions on the rest of the heating requirements. Sweet Potatoes in the microwave for another 3 minutes, stir then put into the pan and put marshmallows and crunchy stuff on top - insert in oven and bake for 5 minutes. Check. I can do that. In two minutes check the turkey and ham's internal temperatures to ensure they're heated. Use a thermometer for this event. Check. GO SHOWER.... He runs off.

The microwave beeps alerting me that the sweet potatoes are done. I go to pull them out and can't find the pot holders. I use pot holders. Stephen uses kitchen towels. I deplore using kitchen towels as a pot holder. They don't protect me!!! After searching the drawer, the family room, the counters, etc. I give up on the pot holders and grab the sweet potatoes with the kitchen towel. (Note previous statement of deploring this act.) The container got squirrely on me (technical term) and the molten lava spilled all over all four fingers on my right hand. I screamed louder than I ever have in my entire life. Katherine's now awake. I can't think... the pain is SOOOOOO horrible I think my hand is on fire. Seriously. I run it under water and it laughs at me. I put ice on it... Oh my God the pain. Worst pain of my life. (Recall 18.5 hours of labor with no epidural... ) My hand was a shade of red not normally seen on skin. I can't even describe the color. I can't take my hand off of the ice/water combo for even 5 seconds because the pain gets so unbearable. I think... get aloe. Yeah right... not a chance. I can't touch my hand let alone rub anything on it. Awful. Where's Stephen??? Still upstairs showering. We learned a vital lesson during this event... I could be murdered downstairs (directly below our bathroom) and he would have no idea.

What did we do?? Continued with the party. We had 45 people coming!!! Ya can't cancel now!!! My hand never left an ice pack for 4.5 hours. If it did it was long enough to show someone so they could offer their opinion on how to stop the hurty. I got, drink some spiked egg nog, put butter on it, no seriously, drink more, ok, combine drinking with some pills... that'll help!! I didn't drink at all. Perhaps that's where I went wrong. I went through the night and tried really hard not to complain. I wanted to make sure our friends and family had a good time! If I wined in pain, that might prevent the good times from rolling.

The next morning, after looking at the burn some more, Stephen suggested we "go somewhere" to have it looked at. I thought of the Minute Clinic at CVS. We looked it up online and it said they treated burns. We packed Katherine into the car seat and off we went. (Ok there was a lot of time in there, but you get the drift.) The Nurse Practioner took one look at my hand and said "oh honey, I can't treat THAT, here!!!! You need to go to the ER or Urgent Care." I said NO ER. I don't have DAYS to wait for someone to see me. So we take the info for the Urgent Care center... I try to tell Stephen it's not that bad, and all will be fine. He looks at me, puts the truck in drive and goes directly to Urgent Care.

An hour later we see the doctor... He says something to the effect of NICE JOB. That's definitely a 2nd degree burn. Partial thickness burn... Which my translation gets... Ya gotta bad burn chickie. Check. Got it. What are ya gonna do about it?? Well, he starts going into debreeding... but oh, he doesn't think I need that. (The color starts to go back into my cheeks after he said I didn't need it... HOLY CRAP.) He tells me I need to dress it, put on silvadine (sp?) and writes a prescription for that and pain meds. He didn't even ask me if I wanted the pain meds. He just said, "you need them". Huh. Apparently he knew it hurt.

We go get the drugs and silvadine from the pharmacy.... then go get food because we're all starving, Katherine included. Yes, she's been along for the ride the whole time and has been, as she always is, an AMAZING baby. My girl's a trooper!!!

We start eating, I take my pain meds, and 20 minutes later there's a visual queue for Stephen that the drugs have kicked in. I think it was my drooling. Seriously, the meds kicked my butt. I couldn't talk, could barely walk, was nauseous, swore my hand was across the room (even though I could see it right in front of me) and generally just had a horrible reaction to the meds. So that meant the rest of Sunday was a bit blurry for me. You can ask Stephen what happened. I just know my hand was "over there". That was the end of those pain pills. I'll suffer through the pain thank you very much.

Moving on in the week....

Sunday evening, even in a drug induced haze, we decided to give Katherine a new food. Green beans. The only green food that I'll eat. I'm praying that she likes it. She doesn't like peas (secret happy dance happening) but surely green beans she'll like, right?! I mean peas are nasty... but green beans?!?! Yum!! Not so much. Katherine doesn't like green things. She has added sweet potatoes to her list of foods that she does like. (No comments, please.... Sweet potatoes are now banned in our house with the exception of her baby food containers.)

Monday was a big event for Katherine. Stephen says "look at you!!! what a big girl". I go in to see what she's doing that makes her a big girl and she's playing with her feet. She's on her back. OH MY GOODNESS. She's ON HER BACK!!!! She's finally rolled "the other way". Woohoooooo we're so excited we do a family happy dance. (I'll give you a moment to imagine that........................) Quite an exciting moment. I beg Katherine to "do it again" and alas, she ignores me as if to say "I do not do tricks Mother".

Tuesday AM... Same deed. She's back on her back. Huh. So I roll her over then move to the other side of her crib and call to her. She rolls over for me so now I have witnessed it. YAY!!! Come look Daddy!!! She does it again. Clearly we're onto something. :)

Wednesday, Katherine is lying on the floor and we're playing. She starts to do her rolling thing. Huh. She rolled over from her belly to her back while playing. Pretty cool.

Thursday... Katherine is on the move. She realizes that if she rolls she can move herself across the room. Yes, folks, Katherine can get places now. Nothing is safe. Daddy needs to order the rest of the outlet thingamajigs’ and install them. Girl doesn't want to be held back any longer. The only way we can leave her in one spot and expect to find her in the same one when we turn back around, is if she's sitting up. :) So that's what we do if we want her to stay put. :)

Katherine has also started a little "uppie" thing. If I hold out my arms to her she'll put her arms up for me to pick her up. So cute!!! She did this for the first time on Wednesday when I went to pick her up from daycare. She gets so excited when I go in to pick her up. Squeals and yells and all big smiles. Makes you feel so loved after a long day!!! It's one of my favorite parts of the day.

Katherine is now home from daycare for the next 9 days. Her teachers both said goodbye today, gave hugs & kisses, and told her they'd miss her. I'm sure Katherine will miss them too. She's quite fond of her teachers. They get big smiles from her in the morning when I drop her off. It's good to know she's happy at daycare!! :) And of course, she has her boyfriend, Jacob.

Next week we will be heading to FL to spend RC Christmas with Tootsie, Pop, Jacki, Nicole and MomMom. No, folks, we won't be spending this year with the rest of the Raleigh Jewish community at the movie theatre & Chinese restaurant - for dinner of course. (Both are open on 12/25 and many of us who don't celebrate on 12/25 go watch movies then eat Chinese food!) This year, we're heading to FL! We are leaving to go down sometime on either Monday or Tuesday. We haven't decided yet if we're splitting the drive over two days, driving through the night, or waking up at crack of dawn and driving. We're trying to figure out the best option for 600 miles of driving with a 6 month old. eeek.

This week’s pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/OnTheMove#

Our Christmas Responsibility

We all know that Christmas isn't (really) about presents and Santa. As a parent, I feel like it's our (Stephen and my) responsibility to ensure Katherine knows what Christmas truly represents. Not the holiday hustle and bustle. Not presents. Not cookies or reindeer... but something more important than that. I'm sure we're not the first parents to feel this responsibility.

Most, if not all of you, know that we are Orthodox Catholic. That means, that Christmas isn't celebrated on the 25th. We celebrate on the 7th. So this last week I've wondered a lot about how to explain, to Katherine, the difference between the 25th and the 7th Christmas'. In reality there's no difference except one is on the 25th and the other is on the 7th... Difference in Gregorian versus Julian calendars. The holiday, what it represents, etc. is all the same.

I can't ignore the obvious either... Santa is out there. I see him in every mall, major store, heck, Katherine even had her picture taken with him twice this year. So how do you explain that Santa does not come on December 25th for us... and he won't!!! Santa comes on January 7th for us. And that's the way I want to keep it. There are some traditions we're not willing to give up - this is one of them.

So my pondering continues... When we're in PA for the holiday I hope to chat with some of the other parents at church and see what they say. I'm thinking of calling Fr Rebek too. He's sure to have some thoughts! :)

Santa digs Katherine

Tonight I had a Mommy moment. You know, one of those moments. Hallmark cards are written about them. Lifetime movies commemorate them... Ok. So maybe, not that dramatic but it was big for me.

Tonight I was feeding Katherine before bedtime. Normally Stephen feeds her the bedtime bottle, but tonight I got to do it. She's so snuggly, smells yummy and just so scrumptious!! We were listening to You are My Sunshine. She had her head on my shoulder and she was awake, but pretty sleepy. When the song was over she looked up at me and put her mouth to mine. She gave me a kiss..... A sweet sweet bedtime kiss. After we were singing my favorite lullaby to her. What did I do? I cried. Big Mommy tears. She's six months old today... and I can't believe it. It's been six months since she was born. It seems like yesterday.... Everyone said it would go fast, but I didn't understand it.

So what happened this week... First, Happy 6 month birthday Katherine!!! Can you believe it?!

On Friday, we had our Holiday Party for work. Nikki came over to babysit little miss. Before we left I showed Nicole where the bottles were, her (Katherine's) PJs, and showed her where all of the emergency numbers were. Then I thought... Hm. Has Nikki ever changed a diaper?? I asked. The response "I'll figure it out." Huh. So I quickly said - tabs in back / design up front and hoped I wouldn't come home to Katherine wrapped in 5 diapers. :) I'm pleased to report, Katherine had one diaper on, was dressed in her PJs and put in the baby bag blanket. She was quite content. :) Success!!! I think Aunt Nikki might even be willing to babysit again!! :)

Saturday was the work Holiday Party for the kids. (Cookies, milk and pictures with Santa) Of course we went. It was Katherine's first time seeing the big guy. We stood in line for about 20 minutes and during that time I explained to Katherine what was going to happen and who this Santa guy was. We arrived at the front of the line, removed the bib (that was protecting her clothes from the ginormous volumes of drool that she has) and put her on Santa's lap. She wasn't sure of the whole thing. Who is this guy? Why is he ho ho ho-ing? And the flashes... The paparazzi follows me everywhere!!! We bought one picture... that was enough ($10)... We have no idea what the picture looks like as we had to buy before we could see. A little odd, but alas, that's what ya gotta do apparently. We're still learning all these rules.

She had another visit with Santa on Wednesday of this week when he came to visit her at school. Ok. So he was there to see all of the children, but Katherine thinks it’s because they bonded. She even gave a bit of a smile this time – and what appears to be a tug of the beard. OH MY. We’ll need to work on that. I think we’ll stay away from mall Santas’ this year just in case!!!

Sunday was family picture day back at Portrait Innovations. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE their pictures? I do not love their waits. Especially when you have a cranky husband and baby. Baby was less cranky than husband. Eek. To start with pictures are not a favorite past time for him... let alone waiting for them. Even he was pleased with the results though! As a note to everyone… we were using photos from Sunday for our holiday cards. The cards are ordered. I hope to have a quick turn around once I get them… Translation?! Your card is going to be delivered pretty close to Christmas. Like say, Christmas Eve. And if you’re in FL it may be hand delivered. :P

We spent lots of time on Sunday getting the house ready for our holiday party. Stephen worked on the outside lights… I worked on the inside things. I decided that the live tree in the family room needed some re-doing. It had tinsel. For the last 9 years we’ve had tinsel on our Christmas trees because I was never allowed to have it growing up. Mom claimed it made too much of a mess. Ok. So I’ll give her that one. It does. And after I looked at the first set of pictures I took of the tree, it also looked like the tree was from 1932. So I decided to fix that. I took off all of the tinsel. Each strand. Plucked off of the tree. Yes, it took some time. But it looks much better.

Another thing we learned or realized this weekend is our parents fibbed a bit to us about real trees… Mom always said “they make too much of a mess with all those needles!” We will only have fake trees so we don’t have that mess… I’d like to officially disagree with that statement. The fake trees made more of a mess putting them up than the real tree did. Seriously. So much so that we discussed not having any fake trees next year. They’re just too much of a mess. Not to mention they hurt. I have all these little cuts on my hands and arms. And your hands hurt after you spend a while trying to make the fake tree look real and “fill in” the holes. There’s only so much you can do. With a real one you can always say “That’s part of its character!!!” A fake one with holes… your cheap (the tree not the person)! :P

Katherine tried peaches and squash this week. She digs both. The peaches are a HUGE hit. Go figure!! My little southern girl. The day she counts one, two, ernhart, four – I will cry. And not for sentimental reasons, I assure you. And when six comes out sex (because that’s how they say it in the south) again, tears will flow. *sigh* We need to hope our Northern “accents” rub off.
Katherine watched her first Christmas movie. It’s called “The Year Without a Santa Claus”. I know what you’re thinking. Was that really the first logical pick for her first holiday movie. I wasn’t thinking that way when we watched it. I’d never seen it before. (I know I know.. it’s a holiday classic, yes clearly I’ve been living under a rock… go ahead… mock me.) Honest to goodness I’d never heard of the Mizer brothers. I needed to get caught up since the sequel is on this weekend. (The sequel will be on Saturday night at 8pm for those that are interested as for the channel… no idea. .. Wikipedia has the network I think if you search for The Year Without a Santa Claus. That’s where I had to go to read the plot!) Katherine’s favorite character was Mrs Claus. She liked the song Mrs Claus sang about being Santa.

On our way to FL in a few weeks we will ensure we have the rest of the holiday DVDs in the car so we can catch her up. It’s a 10 hour drive afterall… We can do some serious holiday learnin’ in that time frame. By the way… pray for us. It’s going to be a long ride!!! Eeek

Pictures from the week: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/FirstVisitWithSanta#

Turkey, Trees, Family & Peas

I like that title. Makes me giggle. hehehe

Starting the weekend before last Stephen started cooking and preparing some of the many Thanksgiving day dishes. He started with homemade rolls and moved on to some other dishes from our menu that could be made a few days in advance and then frozen. The rest of the week each day another dish or item was prepared. Sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, turkey brine, and the list went on. Everything was made fresh! He even made homemade mushroom soup to use in the green bean casserole. (No, I didn't try it. It had FUNGUS in it!!!)

Family members started making their trips to NC on Wednesday. Sofi was the first to arrive on Wednesday flying back from her training. Nikki picked her up from the airport and they went home for the night. The Tomanek family arrived next. They made the trek from NJ on Wednesday and arrived late that night. Jacki flew up from Florida on Thursday morning. By 3pm on Thursday the house was full of family and smells of Thanksgiving!!! Katherine was quite excited! Her cousin Tasha was there to play with her and spoil her rotten! :) Not to mention aunts a plenty! :)

Before the family all arrived on Thursday Stephen and I had gone through all of the Black Friday ads. Oh how we love Black Friday shopping. Initially Stephen had thought that we might not go. All of the Black Friday websites had posted ads and he'd been researching for the past few weeks. He hadn't seen a whole lot that he thought was a good deal. Amazing what happens when you see the actual flyers! You find stuff!!! We mapped out our "route" and Stephen put the shopping list in an Excel spreadsheet. Come on now, you're not shocked are you?

Thanksgiving dinner was awesome. Katherine had some peas for dinner and was fed by her Aunt Nikki! She even spared Aunt Nikki a total mess. Now THAT's holiday spirit! :) I even shared my revelation that when Katherine goes to sneeze, cough, etc. instead of you hiding your face you shield hers. Amazing how that cuts down on the splatter!!!

Friday morning Stephen and I got up dark and early (there was no bright about it) and went off to do our shopping. 3:30am comes WAY early. Seriously. There's only one day a year where I realize that 3:30 comes in two times AM and PM. Otherwise I believe there's only one. PM. Jacki stayed home with Katherine to have some Aunt/Niece bonding time. Stephen and I hit 14 stores in about 7 hours. By far the most painful was Kohls. The lines were ridiculous. Mind you we have a process. Kohls is a store where I typically go get the "stuff" while Stephen goes directly to stand in line. I bring him things while he stands in line and continue to shop around the store. When I'm done, he goes and walks around. We have a system. Electronics stores, it's my job to stand in line. He doesn't trust me to walk around there. :-/ I might get sucked into an impulse buy. Oops. This year we even did something crazy... we went to the mall. Stephen went to Sears while I went to Express. (Jeans sale & free lounge pants... you'd have gone too!) At around 11am we headed home quite tuckered out. Some of us (ahem) took a good nap that afternoon. (See photos)

The Tomaneks were here for dinner on Friday night and spent some more bonding time with Katherine. I believe Marek even had his first incident with some of Katherine's "special sauce". hehe Poor Marek.

Saturday was the day of sister pictures!!!! YAY!! We had a plan of wearing Christmas PJs for some photos and then jeans and red shirts for another set. I had some PJs for Katherine and a red turtleneck for her too. We figured we could do a picture of Tootsie & Pops girls!! :) We (I) had a GREAT time. The photographer I'm pretty sure found us amusing. The picture of us on our bellies in PJs... all he kept saying was "You don't pick your boogers do you? No!!! That's silly!" I couldn't stop laughing. Still. Now. Why is that SO funny? No idea. But alas, he got what he was looking for. Non-fake smiles! After pictures we all went to Maggianos for dinner. We ate family style. Oh-my-goodness. If you've never done that. You need to. AMAZING!!!! Totally decadent, but oh so yummy!!! Everyone does have to agree on food, but the end result is fantastic!!! Jacki had Tiramisu for the first time and I'm pretty sure she's a lover now. :)

Sunday was another big day. Katherine, Stephen and I headed out to Boone (bumblestuckville) for a Christmas tree. Yes, I realize they sell them at Lowes, Home Depot, Kmart, Food Lion, the street corner, gas stations, etc. But is that really an adventure? No. We wanted an adventure and a FRESH Christmas Tree. It doesn't get much fresher than a farm!!! hehe Some of you may recall our last visit to the Circle C Christmas Tree farm. Ahem. It wasn't a pretty day for me. I got my first speeding ticket (EVER) from a HORRID NC State Trooper. He was mean. Mean. And the red aurora that caused me to get the ticket... I haven't forgotten her. No ma'am. (I'm trying to get over it... but really, it's going to take some time... clearly, years!!!) Anyway, this time when we arrived it was daylight. And we could see all of the trees. The farm is massive. Christmas trees as far as you can see. Oh and lest I forget... mud. Lots of it. Did I mention it was raining? Again, folks, adventure!!! We hopped out of the car (literally) and into the mud with our jeans rolled up. I strapped Katherine to my chest, put a blanket over her and off we went to find the perfect tree.

I saw it from a distance. Perfect. Gorgeous. Tall and majestic. Also 9ft. I looked at Stephen and said OH LOOK!!! The perfect Christmas tree!!!! He took his stick, that had markings for each foot of tree so you could measure, and saw that it was 9ft and just looked, shut his eyes, and shook his head. Humpf. So we continued our quest... The next perfect tree (also referred to as our "maybe christmas tree") we saw... measured... evaluated... and decided it was quite lovely. Not as tall and majestic as my 9ft beauty... but stunning never the less. :) We walked around some more but Katherine kept coming back to that tree. She really liked it. Just wait till you see the pictures. She was really into it. :P

It was decided. We'd take THAT tree. (And besides we were getting pretty cold on our adventure. We were in the mountains afterall. Yes, we've gotten thin blooded.) The men on the little carts drove over with their chainsaw and down came the tree!! Weeeeee... It was loaded on the little cart and taken to the bottom of the hill to be bagged and strapped to the top of the mini-van. (I'm still way digging the mini-van by the way! It ROCKS.)

We then started to investigate the timeshares in Boone. So let me start off by saying fibbing is not something I excel at. At all. I crack under pressure. I'm just no good at it. So we pull into the timeshare resort and the man at the little security hut says "Hello sir, can I help you?" Stephen replies, "Yes, we're headed to the timeshares."

Security Hut Man: Do you have a reservation?

Stephen (fibber McGee): Yes. (I yelp a little... )

Security Hut Man: Name?

McGee: Aleksza

Hut Man: Hm. I don't see it here...

And so the little saga continued until he directed us to the reservation location. I was ready to blurt, "We don't have a reservation we just want to drive around and look." Yeah. I'm awesome right. It goes back to when DJ would have Cheryl and I hike to an ice cream parlor for some treats after we were supposed to be sitting on the porch or at one of the neighbors houses. He'd have a brilliant idea to just walk a few blocks for some sweets. I'd be nervous. Every time. One time we even got caught by Aunt Catherine (some of you might know her as SISTER ROSALIMA!!!!). What happened? DJ fibbed. I couldn't do it. She's a nun for petes sake!! He told her we were at the Kolisis. I assure you we were not. We were getting ice cream. And you know what? I always got blamed for being the oldest whenever we got in trouble. "You should know better." I think AC & UD and Grandmom forgot the whole peer pressure thing. DJ was good at it!! Real good. I think Cheryl would be with me on this one.

Anyway, I digress. The whole driving around the place... I was quite sure that security had been contacted and we were going to get in trouble. What trouble? I don't know, okay. I just knew trouble. Did they? Did we? No. We got lucky. :P

After we left the scene, we headed home. What should have been a 3 hour trip... 5.5 hours. Not a pretty site. Katherine wasn't so thrilled with being in the car again, and we hit upon multiple feeding times on the way back. But alas, we got home and had our maybe christmas tree with us!

Our tree is now lit and adorned with special ornaments in our family room. Katherine's getting used to the idea of a part of the forest being next to her ExerSaucer but I think she likes the lights.

It was a great week with family. We enjoyed everyone's company and were so grateful to have my sisters and Stephen's sister and family join us to celebrate Katherine's first Thanksgiving. What a blessed year we've had... From last year's Thanksgiving Day when we told everyone that I was pregnant, to this Thanksgiving Day when our baby girl celebrated with us. So grateful. So happy! :)

oxox

Weeks pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/MyFirstThanksgiving#