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Browsing Tag: This Is My Life
Christmas Eve was spent with my family at my house. It was nice to not have to travel. But all of the workaholics in my family worked a half day. Somehow the morning started with my brother being missing, but not really. He wasn’t around when my sister went to pick him up for work that morning and he wasn’t answering his phone. Now, my brother has a tendency towards bad luck, so we spent the morning in a half panic until Molly spotted him on the job site a few hours later.
Of course, our familial concern only made Mason crabby. So when he showed up with his contribution of burrito flavored beef jerky, he was angry that we cared so much to bombard his phone with messages and even go so far as to Facebook his roommate (who we haven’t met) to make sure he wasn’t dead.
But besides Molly spending her work day mentally planning Mason’s funeral and thinking about what to say in the eulogy she would give, the day was pretty laid back.
Andrew, my mom, the dogs, and I spent the morning playing cards.
Then we waited for everyone to arrive. It was a very odd holiday because there was no snow on the ground, our grandparents were traveling, and we didn’t give any gifts because we had decided to spend the weekend at Mystic Lake a few weeks ago. So we watched Christmas specials, stuffed ourselves with food, and played 13 rounds of Mexican Train.
Then, it was time for the traditional ugly Christmas sweater family picture. This year we didn’t have anyone to take the picture for us, so once again we resorted to the self timer.
This year, my family decided to take a small vacation together instead of buying gifts. We were sick of trying to figure out what everyone wanted. It was hard to find something my dad would actually like that was made in America, something techy for Andrew, and finding anything that my sister would actually like and not just feel obligated to keep.
So after trying to plan several trips that were out of our price range, we settled on spending a weekend at Mystic Lake Casino. None of us are gamblers, except my brother Mason who is extraordinarily lucky when it comes to things like bingo, so this vacation was a bit strange to plan. We may have been dazzled by the off-brand holiday cirque show they had playing in their showroom this season.
Check-in was Friday. Andrew and I were able to get on the road fairly soon after work, despite me deciding to make a mug of tea and a cheese quesadilla for the road as Andrew was starting the car. We checked in, brought our luggage up to the room and the hijinks commenced. My sister brought Andrew an ugly Christmas sweater to wear later in the evening. He tried it on while my mom was out of the room and this may have happened:
Yes we are immature and changed my mom’s background to this wonderful picture of her son-in-law. We thought it was hilarious; she was slightly amused.
I have had a great time looking through old Christmas pictures, so I figured I’d share a couple.
The first Christmas that Andrew and I were dating there was a huge snowstorm, so we didn’t even get to spend it together. Instead, me and my teenage siblings made snowmen in the front yard. It was obviously hard work.
I just wanted to show that I have a super cool sister.
As a pregnant lady, I can do what I want.
Like cut a brownie out of the middle of the pan because that’s the part I like the best.
Thanksgiving is almost over for us this year. (We have one more Friendsgiving tonight to attend and more leftovers to eat this weekend.) I’m excited for the Christmas season to start, but this year I want everything to slow down because as soon as the holidays are over, the baby will be here.
But right now, I’d just like to talk about the differences between my family’s Thanksgiving and Andrew’s family Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving #1 happened on Thursday and involved us getting up at 6am to drive down and see my family. My family get-togethers are loud, raucous, and generally not predictable. This year wasn’t too crazy, but it still involved 5 dogs (one was shut into the only bathroom in the house so anytime someone wanted to use it, they had to be careful not to let the dog out), a fight over car maintenance, and an in-depth conversation about nose hair trimming. I’m sure Andrew is still disappointed he missed out on last year.
So, what have I learned in the 7 months I’ve been harboring a fetus? Well, let me regale you.
1) What does it feel like? Weird. It feels like I’ve had a deflated basketball in my gut my entire life, but now someone sneaks in every couple of days and gives it a few more pumps.
2) The baby definitely takes after my family. It moves nonstop and hates to cooperate. The ultrasound tech had a horrible time trying to get a profile picture. And every time we try to listen to the heartbeat, we have to play hide and seek with baby. Last time baby even kicked the Doppler wand. If nothing else, the baby has spirit.
3) The baby is now starting to take up more space and is therefore much more noticeable when it decides to practice cartwheels. I feel like an alien is going to pop out at any moment.
4) My coworker noticed that I’ve started to grunt sometimes when I get up at work. I told her it is akin to when tennis players grunt when they swing their rackets. It just helps me get a little more oomph to hoist my butt up off of the ground.
5) I have realized how lucky I am to have a supportive partner. Andrew has been the greatest father-to-be I could ever ask for. He makes me popcorn for dinner, takes baby language classes with me, and deals with my constant requests from the couch that interrupt his video game time. And he does all of it without complaining. Sorry ladies, he doesn’t have a brother!
6) Being pregnant enough at the right time makes for a great Halloween costume 🙂
I’m currently in the third day of my weekend and I’m enjoying Christmas movies and coffee in front of my fireplace.
The entire weekend started off on a bad foot, though when I came home on Thursday to no running water. We called the city water dispatch line who told us our pipes were probably frozen and that they would put us on the list and that sorry, but we were #63, so they’d get to us Saturday or Sunday. Bummer. But I had a fun weekend planned, so I tried to ignore the no running water thing.
Friday night, Andrew and I spent Valentine’s Day painting and eating dinner at a date night event. We painted beautiful pictures and Andrew managed to not draw naughty things in his.
We finished out our night watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 with my sister, Molly. How romantic.
While we were running errands this morning, Andrew told me he had a vision plan. I turned down the radio so I could hear his philosophical view of our future.
He meant his new health insurance covered vision.
