Thanksgiving (week 258)

The holiday season has definitely begun, with cold, damp, and windy days arriving to Long Beach. This week also marked the arrival of family from New York visiting for Thanksgiving. We are lucky to have so many great aunts, uncles, and grandparents that actually like to come visit us and stay with us in our tiny house. We are blessed with family and friends all over the country--from east coast to west coast--that all bring unique personalities and traditions to the table.

Uncle Mark and Aunt Leah arrived Wednesday afternoon to stay with us, celebrate Christopher's second birthday party on the 23rd, and have Thanksgiving dinner Thursday afternoon. It was the first time since Chris was born that we spent Thanksgiving at home, but it was kind of nice to not be on the road (no flying with Christopher), and living out of a suitcase for the holidays. It is hard enough for kids like us to sleep through the night when we are on our schedules and in our beds; even worse when we are on the road.

For Chris's 2nd birthday party we had our friends over for baked zitti and sheet cake. Chris got a new Thomas the Train bike from Dubby, some new dark jeans, and absolutely loved his yellow cake with vanilla frosting. The party was a big mess as usual with sixteen people smashed into 900 square feet of house. The kids destroyed our bedroom, broke our computer, and I was thrown out of the party around 8:00 pm for fighting with my best friend over a soccer ball. It was a classic meltdown.

On Thursday, we had Thanksgiving dinner at our house with friends and family. It was the first time that the kids had their own table with limited success. There wasn't a whole lot of eating at the kids table, and the two-year-olds (Maddie and Chris), probably ate a lot more than the big boys. The next night we went to Woodland Hills to have another Thanksgiving dinner with Aunt Leah's family and got to see Uncle David's new house. Chris and I slept in the car on the way home and slept with mixed results after consuming lots of candy, crackers, and Martinelli's sparkling apple cider.

It is USC versus UCLA this weekend, and although they have predicted 80 degree temperatures for the weekend in LA, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!