Late Christmas photo this year...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone or anyone who may possibly come by! I was thinking this morning of traditions that I had since childhood and how to keep them for our future child. What do we keep for our child from my husband and I. Maybe its a little premature; I am a year in advance, but it is fun. The basics are rather simple, both of us are from Catholic families who celebrate traditions as many American Catholic families... but its the simple things. My husband's family opens gifts on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas morning. Then I notice our own families do not celebrate as before. It could be partially because of lack of young children. Many of the things you do for this holiday is for enjoyment of children. This generation just isn't producing the same, and when they do they tend to have broken families. These situations always make holidays awkward. I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me. I want my kids to have wonderful Christmas' like the ones I remember growing up. But I grew up in a small community that was practically all Christian. Everyone decorated and everything on the TV and radio after Thanksgiving was all about Christmas. All my relatives were married with two or three kids and I had three cousins that were born within months of myself. We spent time with both grandparents who lived in the same town and sometimes relatives from out of town would stop by as well. We would go to midnight mass and mass on Sunday morning after opening all the Christmas presents. Everything was closed and deserted, so you had nothing to do but stay home and play with your new gifts.

Now my parents only had me and my brother, and I am the only one that seems to even have a possibility for children... We are about to give up on him even getting married. My husband's family is bigger. His older sister has two children, but is divorced and brings over the boyfriend's family every other year. The other has a boyfriend that lives in the house with her parents. He also has a child that lives mostly with the mother, but one that he had out of wedlock in high school. So it never leads to what I think is a normal Christmas. It is always great though when everyone is around opening gifts, but I think more and more that Christmas may be something for our immediate family to spend together every year. This year we ended up waiting till past ten to open gifts when the children finally made it over after eating at the boyfriend's house. I think the other child is coming over some time this morning to open gifts with his father after spending time with his mother.

I know the only thing you can do is try to instill tradition as much as you can when they are young so they celebrate and follow their faith as they get older. I just dread being in the situation of having to say everyone else is wrong, but at the same time I have no problem in doing so. I am not one to believe in political correctness or I wouldn't post such a thing.

Merry Christmas everyone, and I hope you enjoy the new year as well!

20 weeks and our recent move

No one really says it, but it is strange and somewhat alien having something inside of you poking outward against your belly when you have your hand over your stomach. Normally it isn't something that you expect to happen and probably would find creepy, but when pregnant it is expected to grow stronger and people are happy to feel it.

I am now completely in the middle of my pregnancy, week 20. Its a point that I thought would be a long ways off from the first, but it really sneaks up on you. Makes me think the rest will probably do the same. That would be fine with me, as long as the baby comes when it is ready and doesn't decide to come a month or two early. That is something I would fear.

I've done my best through the first part to avoid stress and not strain myself. Not actively working all the time definitely helps, but the move did put a little strain. It was well worth it though, now I have a baby's room and a house big enough for my growing family. Of course we did a typical move in my family of having family members come in from out of town and all help at once. It can be frustrating at times, but for the most part it was great. We got into our house in a couple of days.

Our old house was a disaster from the beginning. Something you truly just dread coming home to. No decent hot water heater, oh yeah, it also leaked all over after we first moved in and rotted the back door and left water damage in the house. The replacement was too small for the house, so it was power showers for three years or you are taking a cold shower. Forget about baths, the plumbing in the bathroom was a constant disaster. The plumbing between the tub and the toilet was so that when the pipe clogged up with the toilet it went up in the tub.... Yes, disgusting. Then for the first two years after it went up in the tub it would go back down and then out the bottom of the toilet to where it flooded part of the house. I mean down the hall to the bedrooms, part of the living room and to the kitchen. After about the sixth time of this we threatened to leave, yes we were renting because we moved to South Florida in 2006 (don't believe the news, only idiots or gamblers bought at that point down here). That is when the toilet was replaced and they found part of a snake (the type used to clear plumbing) in the base of the toilet... or the top of the pipe. So after that, at least the house didn't flood again, but the plumbing still backed up in the tub... till the week before we left. The pipes had to be snaked every week to every other week and after awhile, its pointless calling the landlord. So my lovely husband dealt with it... and I won't give details, but there are possible ways of permanently fixing it. We were just told that it would not be done. Oh, and those are just the plumbing problems with the house....

So here we are in a house bigger than the one we had in Texas (much bigger than the disaster above and cheaper) and we are excited every time we can take long showers or hot baths. So the baby's room is a perk, but what is great is a sense of normalcy that has been lacking for so long. That is one stage of my life that will not be forgotten, no, my husband will probably remind me of it from time to time for the rest of our lives. He's just like that.

Now I have spent my day in bed. That is something not usually done, but I am on my second round of antibiotics from an infection that I guess just decided not to go away. I figure laying low couldn't hurt. Though I think I won't repeat it tomorrow. I get bored so easily. I mean I'm writing here, how bored could I be? Ha! I'll write again soon!