2008

Welcome to a new year! I'm really glad 2007 is finally over. While there was some good things that happened in 2007 (Alder was born, and that was awesome!), it was a very hard year. I had a very good friend commit suicide, and then my aunt died too in what was essentially a very long, drawn-out suicide. I thought I was going to finish school, but with delay after delay, it didn't happen. I slipped into another depression and gained some weight (source of eternal difficulties for me). I can't say I'm feeling especially optimistic about 2008, but at least it is a fresh start. I should DEFINITELY finish school this year (probably by March). I'm working on the depression issue. I'll probably start getting PAID again, so our family financial situation will improve. We might even have another baby by the end of the year (nothing to announce right now though). We'll see.

As for last night, we celebrated the evening with two other couples here at our house. One couple has a 5-month old, who went down for the evening on our bed. The other couple is 37.5 weeks pregnant with their first baby. Both of the women were present at my birth with Alder, so we are all quite good friends. We enjoyed pizza, beer, sparkling cidar, and some ice cream. We talked and laughed and joked around. And then everyone got tired so they bailed early, but actually didn't walk out the door until 11:45 pm. I thought that was funny. So Keith and I popped on the tv and watched the ball drop, then hit the hay. One of these years I'd like to attend a real NYE party again.

Back to work tomorrow. We've now had 3 weeks of extra-long weekends. I think next week with 5 days of work will be really hard to handle.

White Christmas

There is real-live snow falling from the sky today. It isn't much, but it is enough to make me GRIN. We live in an area that just doesn't get snow, so this is really awesome. I wouldn't quite call it a white Christmas, but it is magical.

NORAD tracks Santa

He was in Ethiopia last I checked. Where is he now?

Thanksgiving Tradition

Seems almost everyone has a Thanksgiving tradition. Most of the people I know gather with family for this holiday, but not us. No, we have the tradition of saving Thanksgiving for friends. Every other holiday goes to family. This is the one we save for celebrating our "other" family - our best friends.

It all started in college, when the very short weekend was too expensive for most people to fly home to see their families. So we started Thanksgiving for friends. And then when my parents split up, I no longer wanted to spend Thanksgiving at home, because it meant trying to balance two separate Thanksgiving dinners on the same day. I flew to Paris for one Thanksgiving, then I drove cross-country for the next one. Once we (Franny, Dave, and I) moved to Oregon, we started planning all our Thanksgivings together. That first year, we actually flew to Tucson to visit friends from college. Others flew from around the country too. It was one of the most memorable holidays of my life. The following year, the whole gang congregated in Portland. Nearly all of my Thanksgiving holidays have involved Franny and Dave since then (except last year, when I was stuck in Corvallis waiting on a doula client who was late).

This year was no different. We loaded up the car with both kids, an emergency change of clothes, and some prepared dishes for the feast, and we drove north to Portland yesterday. It had a pretty different feeling with toddlers running around, but it was wonderful just the same. We laughed about how much we used to drink at Thanksgiving, and how each year seems to involve less and less imbibing. I think I downed about 3/4 of a beer before I started feeling sluggish and tired, so I set it aside. I got to see my buddy Lisa, whom I haven't seen in probably a year and a half. And I got to see Dave's parents, which was a blast. Yep, it was a great time. And I only checked my phone about 20 times (waiting on another doula client to go into labor, though thankfully this time she's in Portland so I was able to come to the feast).

Next year we've reserved Thanksgiving in Corvallis. We've never hosted in Corvallis before, but I think the time is right. With some luck, I'll either be enormously pregnant, or holding a newborn too. Now only if we could expand our house just a bit...

Oh, and our contributions to this year's feast: cheesey risotto with sun-dried tomatoes, organic herbed stuffing, and fudge. The whole meal was delicious!

Ava as a monkey in 2005

And as a comparison to Alder in the monkey costume below, here is Ava in 2005:

Halloween 2007

We attended our indoor park's costume party where Ava was a ladybug and Alder was a tiger.
Alder also sported the pumpkin hat that a friend knit for us back when I was pregnant with Ava.
Then I decided to try Alder in Ava's old monkey costume and it fit him really well! So for library costume party, we went with that outfit. Ava loved wearing her costume. She was one of the few kids who happily kept it on all evening.

We didn't do any actual trick-or-treating. I see no reason to give my kids candy yet. Ava's had one piece in her life, and she didn't really seem to know what it was. So for one more year, I've escaped the crazy sugar high that I'm sure will be part of all future Halloweens.

I was rather perturbed by the SINGLE trick-or-treat visitors we got at the door. It was a family with five kids. They stomped on the porch, chased the cats, and banged on the window. And the parents both had candy bags too. Jerks. Good thing I was handing out all-natural and odd-flavored lollipops. :)