Holidays are always very busy time for our family, so a couple of years ago Matt and I made a decision to split up the holidays between our families in order to cut down on our travel time and make them a little more relaxed for us as well. So we spend Thanksgiving with my mom's extended family, and since Matt's brother Ben got married last year, we have spent Saturday with his family, Friday is our day, we set up decorations and enjoy some time together as a family. Then on Christmas it's usually reversed and we spend Christmas with Matt's Family and on New Years we celebrate Christmas with my family.
This year was no different, at least to start with, Thursday we went to Aunt Sharon's and had a good time visiting and playing with all the cousins who were able to come, it was especially nice to met my cousin Jeremy's fiance' Elizabeth, they will be getting married in January, in South Carolina so it was nice to get to see them since we won't be able to make it down there for the wedding. My cousin Jacinda and Joshua were also there from out of state and it was nice to see and visit with them. And even those that live here in the area, Thanksgiving is one of the few times a year we manage to get together so it was really nice to see everyone and catch up on what everyone is doing now.
Friday, shopping day, well actually we started Thursday as some of the stores had thier Friday specials online on Thursday, so there was only a couple of stores that we actually needed to go to to get a few items but those items were good enough deals that we set our alarms for 4am and (after sleeping through them) got up, grabbed the kids and rushed to the store. Unfortunatly we weren't early enough and missed out on some of the good buys... I really wanted to get some of those sheet sets but they were already out when I got there at 5:30 (they went on sale at 5)! But we were still able to get some good deals and Mysia was excited cause she got to go to the store in her jammies. When we got home I went and donated Plasma which took about 2 hrs. and Matt played with the kids and watched Rudolf and Frosty, when I got back I went online to order a few more items that had not gone onsale until Friday and we helped the kids decorate thier Trees for thier rooms. This year we got them the little (1-2 foot) Trees for thier rooms and pink and blue ornaments to put on them, we also got them some little clay ornaments which we put in our 24 days of Christmas calendar and they take turns getting a new ornament for thier tree each day. After that we ate lunch and put the kids down for a nap and Matt and I worked on getting the decorations up in the living room. That took most of the afternoon, Matt started working on the outdoor lights but discovered that half of the lights weren't working, so he gave up on that for the time being as I was needing to get ready to leave to go to a surprise shower that the girls were hoasting for Elizabeth, it was avery nice shower and she got many pretty gifts.
Saturday, unfortunately I had to work part of the day, with me only being avialable on Saturdays it makes it dificult to get hours, so I have to work when I'm asked to. I did limit my self to 2 o'clock though and that helped some. Ben and Ana came by shortly after I left for work and picked up Matt and the kids to take them to his parents house, they also got a bunch of stuff for Baby Elijah, stuff that Malachi has out grown, clothes, carseat, ect. After I got off work I joined them and we played games and celabrated Garry's Birthday (which was on Wednesday) untill about 6pm then Ben and Ana left to have Dinner with some friends and we headed out to the church to get the van before rushing over to my parents house for a quick supper and a couple of rounds of UNO, with my siblings and thier signifigant others, Adria's boyfriend Ivan was in town with his brother Tim, and Silas' girlfriend, Kristi joined us as well
It was a fun and busy weekend but we enjoyed every minute we got to spend with each of our families and look forward to getting together again at Christmas.
~Lydia
