The Thanksgiving weekend came and went so quickly, I can't even believe it's almost a week since it's happened. Gaining a new family definitely adds to the craziness of the holiday season. But we managed to make it (and eat) at all three Thanksgiving Day gatherings.
Dillon was such a trip the whole weekend, telling people he wanted Halloween Candy for Christmas and rocking out on his guitar. Aunt Donna's house could have passed for a pre-school because of all of the little ones running around. I'm sure that's how it was when we were all little, it's just crazy that we are the one's having kids now.
It was so nice to visit, eat Mom's food, drink beer with Dad, and lay on the couch. My favorite part of the weekend was reading "Goodnight Moon" to Dillon and him asking me the next day if I was going to come home with him. I love him to pieces and can't wait to see him for Christmas.
"Bad Company" is his favorite song!
It was so much fun to play board games with Dan, Byron, and Justin. I grew up playing board games just for the fun of it and not really keeping score... not with these boys, they read the directions over and over before we can even start. They keep the timer on you, and make sure you're keeping score correctly. The jury is still out on if the word "pez" can be used in Scrabble, I say yes, but Justin is so against it and says that word cost him the game.
When I got to see Amanda and Jesika on Saturday night, I was so excited. We always just pick up right where we left off, drinking margaritas, and eating chips and salsa of course. I miss the girls more than anything, and it is so weird being the girl that doesn't know the stories. I used to have to listen to Amanda's stories at least three times before all the girls knew them. On Saturday, they were all new to me and Jesika was the one that could finish her sentences. I'm jealous, but I'm so glad that they have each other in their new home in Tennessee.
So through all this jumbled mess of a blog, I hope you saw that we had an amazing weekend. It was so good being home, and so hard to leave. We had a great time and I'm already ready to go home for Christmas!
I vowed I would never be a part of this madness, that was before Dan. The past two years I've come to love the idea of waking up early, drinking coffee, and making our way out to the stores. We like to scour the ads on Thursday and plan out the route in which we are going to take the next morning. And this year was no different. We started out day waking up early and making the preliminary look through the ads (stopping of course to see all the decorated turkeys in The Cincinnati Enquirer). The first look only entails separating the goods from the junk. After the junk is taken away we can really start looking and making lists. Our search was interrupted by having to get ready to go to our three Thanksgiving Day gatherings. But trust me, this didn't stop us. At Tammy's (our second stop of the day) the Thanksgiving Day Command Center was in full force. See everyone here (three computers and a cell phone out), looking for the best deals, seeing what time the stores open, and mapping out the trip.
After a day full of eating, and eating, and visiting with the family, oh, and how can I forget... an awful Bengals game. We hit the bed early in order to wake up and get a start on our holiday shopping. We got everything we set out to get. Dan and I finished all of our Christmas shopping before noon, and even got a great deal on an elliptical. This purchase was not really planned so getting it home was another task. We almost had to leave Donna at the store because we just didn't know we were going to fit. But this lady will do anything for a great bargain and she squeezed in with all of our packages. 
As you can see we were packed to the gills. But we had such a great morning, and we ended the day (yes, at noon) drinking bloody mary's and eating pulled pork sandwiches. This is definitely a tradition that I will always love because it's just Me, Dan, and Donna... running around like crazy people, packing our car until we can't see out of it, and getting ready for Christmas.
I about died. Wednesday night as Dan and I were driving home we had to stop and get gas in Batesville... I know, we were so close! Anyway, we are trying to pull out of the gas station to get back on the road and the car in front of us would not move. Dan just lays on the horn, like it's a normal thing to do.
We just looked at each other and realized that we are slowly becoming city people. I doubt anybody has even been honked at in Batesville before for sitting too long. I was so embarrassed, but thought it was funny. That's just what we're used to now.
Two days later as I was getting ready to go out with the girls I stopped and thought, I should make a reservation. It took me a second before I realized that we are going to Harrison and I doubt the restaurant even takes reservations. And when Mom and Dad ask me how I'm going to get home at night, it honestly runs through my brain that I will just take a cab... Yeah right, are you kidding me? I will die the day St. Leon, Indiana has a taxi cab service that isn't Fast Eddie in his 15 passenger van.
Long story short, slowly, but surely Dan and I are becoming accustomed to our new life. But it's always good to come home where nobody honks, you don't need a reservation to get into a restaurant, and you can call your mom or dad, or future mother in law, or your friend's dad to come pick you up outside of a bar. Everybody in the world should have a place like this to go home to, and this Thanksgiving weekend, that's what I'm the most thankful for. My little small town home away from the city... and the crazy city people that we've become.
My Grandma Horstman is one of the top three women I ever knew (the other two on the list are Great-Grandma Hornbach and Mom, later stories about the two of them will definitely follow). But Grandma Horstman, she was quite the lady. Not only did she raise eight fantastic children, but she loved every single one of her 24 grandchildren. I think all of us grandchildren had a different and special relationships with her, I wish I would have had more time to make a closer relationship, but the memories I have are pretty fantastic.
My brother John had such great times with Grandma. He spent every Friday, and almost every Saturday night at Grandmas house. This was when Jill and I were both cheer leading and John was just too little to go to every single game, so Mom and Dad dropped him off with Grandma. This is where John learned to play poker. My favorite story is when Dad walked in after a football game and Grandma said, "Paul, what is better? Three of a kind or Two Pair?" Dad of course answered, "Three of a Kind." Apparently John had lied to Grandma to win a hand and convinced her that his two pair beat her three of a kind. So they spent the evenings playing cards, listening to the East Central games on the radio and eating snacks.
Grandma always had the best snacks. The things I remember about Grandma's house were her making cocktails for Grandpa, 7and7's, and she always stirred them with the swizzle sticks that were kept by the refrigerator. But when she gave Grandpa his cocktail she would always give us snacks. We would either get this amazing popcorn (I still don't know where this popcorn came from because it always just mysteriously appeared in a yellow tupperware container), or chips and pretzels. Not just chips in a bowl, and pretzels in a bowl, but chips and pretzels combined together.
Tonight when Dan and I decided we needed a snack I put these two things together in a bowl. He was so surprised. His exact words were, "Who would have thought that these little chip and pretzel sandwiches would be so good?" I replied, "Grandma Horstman"
To this day I have never seen my brother eat chips or pretzels by themselves, I've never seen my mom buy chips at the store and not buy pretzels, and I'm sure it's because John prefers them together. It's just a little piece of Grandma that he keeps with him.
I really hope that John remembers the times that he had with Grandma Horstman. She was such an amazing person and I am really jealous of the time he got to spend with her. In the theme of Thanksgiving, today I give thanks for Grandma Horstman and the family she raised. I know I wouldn't be the same person without her. Love you, Grandma.
So I'm not one of those soon-to-be brides that goes to theknot.com for advice on every aspect of my wedding. I never "registered" my wedding date on the site or looked for wedding venues on it. I don't read the "Bride's Biggest Regrets" articles and I don't look at the pictures to find "The Most Talked About Wedding Favors." I just think the site it a little silly for me. If you love the site. More power to you, it's very successful, they make a lot of money (trust me, I know what it costs to advertise on their website and magazine), and I'm sure it does have a lot of great advice/ideas.
I get on the site every once in awhile for work. As you can tell from above, we have a premium listing with them and we actually get a lot of business from their website, so from that aspect I love it. But their articles and emails to my account (I still don't know how they got my address) are... ummm... not so much for me.
But today, when I was on the site I was a little intrigued by one of their stories entitled... "What Your Engagement Ring Says About You." This weekend Dan and I were actually just talking about my engagement ring and how much I love it. So here it is... what "The Knotties" had to say about my emerald cut ring.
Your relationship: You're the girl of his dreams and he's totally in awe.
Your wedding: Voted "can't miss" event of the season (and not just by your mom). Destined to be the party where everyone hits the dance floor.
Hello! I love this. Any of my family and friends know that I am usually the first (maybe second to Jill) and last one on the dance floor. I know that I can't be out there all night as the bride, but I plan to be for quite a bit of it. Dan and I are probably fretting the most about our "Must Play/Must NOT Play" list and right now we are sitting across from each other at the kitchen table taking turns playing songs we want played at the wedding for each other. It's really becoming a great list.
Anyway, so because of this story about my engagement ring today I'm beginning to like theknot.com a little bit more. I love my ring and Dan says if I wouldn't have so blatantly suggested the type of ring I would like he would have picked the same one out, because it's me.
Love him, love my ring, love this picture of me the day after we got engaged, after we beat a bunch of Canadians at beer-pong! Because of this picture I will always remember the fun we had on this trip and how great of a week it was. Many More Trips Like This To Come!
This week has definitely flown by. I haven't even really had time to sit and think about this week and talk with Dan about what's going on in our lives until we had most of the day together today. So since it's been awhile since I shared anything with you... here are my favorite things from the week.
1) The CHILL Wine event. Thursday evening I went to an event with the girls I work with at The Merchandise Mart. It really was an awesome event. First of all The Merchandise Mart is a huge building in the city that takes up an entire city block. The whole first floor is kitchen and bath showrooms. Beautiful, beautiful creations and then they take all of these show kitchen and put 30 chefs from the city to demo their food in them. Our Chef was invited to showcase his food so that's why we all went. But then with each chef there was a wine pairing. So we just walked around, drank a lot of different wines and tasted some really great food from chefs, and my favorite part of the evening was that the wine pairing with our chef's food was champagne!
2) The beautiful weather. I did not wear a jacket one day this week. I never would have thought that in mid-November I would be comfortably just wearing sweaters every day, but that's how my week has been. I know that everybody is worried about global warming.. but I'm embracing it!
3) Dan and I's shopping adventure. We had some time to kill this evening so we made our way to Pier 1 and Michael's. I can't believe that he agreed on these adventures with me, but he did. We were looking for frames for the art work that we recently purchased online as well as a tree topper for our peacock themed tree. The frames, we successfully found... the tree topper, not so much. Dan did get excited as he walked down one aisle of Michaels because he saw an angel dressed in peacock colors. When he finally got a good look at it he was a little disappointed. The angel was African American. Although it was the best tree topper we have found to date, we didn't buy it. You never know, if nothing else turns up we may have an African American angel on our tree. I just think that would be funny. And of course, when I mentioned this to Jill she told me angels were all colors and that we should have definitely purchased it, that's Jill for you.
4)My job. Work has been really busy lately and I've been given quite a bit of different responsibilities lately. But this week has brought a lot of laughs from our office. Maybe because of some of the clients we've been dealing with, or maybe because of the event that was planned for 250 people and 520 ended up showing up, or maybe just because we are all together again since one of the girls went on vacation, but this week has been full of laughs. Business is good, I'm learning a lot, being very productive, and loving every minute of it. Definitely a highlight of my week.
5) It's one week closer to Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. I was thinking today about one of my TA's in college. He was not from American and did not really understand the concept of Thanksgiving. The day before we all left for break he said "Be Thanksgiving" to us as we left, and I realized, maybe Ahmeet does get it. We shouldn't say, "Happy Thanksgiving" we should "BE Thanksgiving." Every year since then the group of us from that class have texted or facebooked each other,"BE Thanksgiving," and that's what I'm going to do this year. I'll be giving thanks for everything great that's happened in my life this year..which has made 2010 my favorite year ever!
I'm having one of those day. Everybody has them. Everybody needs them. The day where you don't get out of your pajamas.
Dan and I slept in. It was a little strange waking up with Dan and not having him run off to school to watch film (The Bulldogs season unfortunately ended last night in the sectional final against Valpo). The kids played hard and it was a great season. I hate to see that it's over, but I'm glad to have Dan back. We will get to do more things on the weekends and maybe be able to make more trips home since we have the whole weekend to ourselves. So until track season starts, I'll be enjoying our weekends together. Oh, and Dan will now always be the first one home, which according to our house rules... he'll be cooking dinner!
So back to my pajamas. There is no reason to get dressed to make breakfast, clean the house, do laundry, and watch horse races and college football. Reading magazines and books is so much more comfy in your pjs, and if you want to take a nap mid-day, you're already dressed for it. It's wonderful. Oh, and most importantly you're not making any more laundry for yourself!
I'm so glad that I'm not someone that has to be busy and doing something all the time. I've never found having plans for every single day laid out to make me happy. And I thank my mom for that. My favorite days at home were days that we all stayed in and hung out together. There would be days when we had no plans and we embraced that. We would sleep in, eat breakfast or lunch together. Do something around the house and then just hang out together, watching whatever sporting event was on TV or playing outside or hanging out in the garage. And when we are all home together this is what we like to do best. Especially now with Dillon it's so good to just let him stay in his pajamas all day too and just play. He naps and eats when he wants, we all eat and nap when we want and just enjoy being together as a family.
I love days like today. If you're not making it a point already to have a regular stay in your pj day, then you should. It really is wonderful.
Our Executive Chef, Chef Pat, has started sending the staff “Food For Thought.” I really enjoy these emails that he sends out every so often. It’s sometimes a good story about customer service or an interesting “Foodies” blog post… something along those lines. Today it was just s few simple lines that I really appreciated. I’m not sure where he got it from, so I’m sorry I could not reference it at all, but here it is…
Childish vs. Childlike
Childlike makes a great scientist.
Childish produces tantrums.
Childlike brings fresh eyes to marketing opportunities.
Childish rarely shows up as promised.
Childlike is fearless and powerful and willing to fail.
Childish is annoying.
Childlike inquires with a pure heart.
Childish is merely ignored.
I love this, and it reminds me of Jill, the most childlike, loving, caring, and silly person I know. Seeing Jill with Dillon is such a treat and it always reminds me of how wonderful of a person she is. Every year I send her a Mother’s Day card and I always make sure to write in it that Dillon is the luckiest kid in the world to have a mom like Jill, and that she’s the greatest mom since our very own.
So I share this with all of you, to try to be more childlike, not childish. Try to be more like my sister, Chilly.
"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." ~ jrr tolkien
What a fantastic quote, I could even say that as of today it is my favorite. I found this earlier while I was researching Godiva Chocolate Vodka events... totally work related since we are hosting one of these events next week.
Anyway, when I read this quote I realized those are three of the things that I absolutely love. Food, no brainer. I love sitting down to a good meal, drinking a glass of wine, and enjoying meals with family and friends is probably my favorite past time. Cheer, being cheery is so much better than being miserable. I'm not going to lie to you and say that I'm cheery and friendly every single day, but about 96% of the time you can count on me having a smile on my face. Misery just makes things worse, and it's not a good look for me... or anybody that I know. And song, today one of the girls that I work with gave me the nick-name of tweety. She says that I whistle too much. I just can't help it. I have the radio on my desk, and listening to music really just boosts my mood, and sometimes... I just feel like i need to whistle along. But I will work on not whistling so much, I don't want to be a bad work-mate.
This quote also reminded me of the upcoming holidays. This year these three things are really what I'm going to concentrate on. Good food, lots of cheer, and of course, Christmas songs. I'm not going to stress out about finding the perfect gifts or making sure I have the best Christmas Eve dress (something I worry about every year way more than I should), I'm going to worry about surrounding myself with cheerful people who are eating and drinking merrily and singing carols. I'm getting more and more excited about bringing out my Frank Sinatra Holiday CD (I have to follow by my self-made rule of no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, but still, I'm excited)
These things all bring a smile to my face and, of course, are my favorites!
Every month has a name... well in my book anyway. For example:
February: The Month of Amanda's Birthday
March: The Month of Starting to Exercise
July: The Month of the Wedding
August: The Month of Dan Leaving me for Football
October: The Month of Stressing About Halloween Costumes
December: The Month Of Christmas Carols
You get the picture... but November is my favorite month:
The Month of The Hand Turkey
I love making hand turkeys, I don't know if it's because I really can't draw and my hand makes a good stencil, or if it's because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. But come November 1st I'm making all kinds of turkeys. I started the tradition my senior year of high school when I made it a point to do a team building exercise once a month in yearbook class. For the month of November I decided that everybody needed to make a hand turkey and write what they are thankful for on the feathers. The first year brought one of my favorite hand turkey stories.
Everybody was working diligently on their turkeys, tracing their hands, gluing on feathers, and writing down what they were thankful for. The list of things people wrote down was pretty amusing. Of course there was the typical... friends, family, a few days break from school, Matt Jared was thankful for tryptophan, and Jesika... she really had a screwed up turkey. It was a disaster. She was upset and I told her, "Jesika, just make a new one, it's okay... and you know what you can put that you are thankful for second chances on a feather." And that's what she did. And I think every year since then she's told me that she's thankful for second chances.
Last year I started making hand turkeys with Dillon, and I'll make sure we do it again this year. I just think it's such a wonderful tradition and I'm glad that I've kept doing it. Maybe I'll even get Dan to make a turkey this year!
So for now, I'll leave you with our turkeys from last year, as well as what will be on my feathers this year.
1. First Time Home Buyer's Loans
2. Public Transportation
3. The Greatest Family, and Soon to be Family in the World
4. The Five Friends
Happy November. Happy Hand Turkey Month
