Thankful that Thanksgiving "Break" is Over!

Happy Boy!

What a week it was!  Being either a teacher or a student my entire life until now, I have always looked forward to holidays/breaks and while on breaks dreaded them coming to an end.  After this “break,” I can safely say that is no longer the case.  Apparently, a break as a stay-at-home basically is the antithesis of normal people's breaks.  Brian, Dominic, and I were constantly rushing around from one thing to the next, while trying to clean up before and then after the holiday while rushing around.  It’s funny how you clean so much when you have guests coming over.  Everything will look great, and then as soon as your guests leave you have to clean everything all over again.  

Now a big fan of the swing! 

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, Dominic and I went to the park with my parents and our family dog Lacey.  Dominic LOVED being on the swing.  It's crazy how he went from being completely terrified swinging just a few months ago to liking it so much now.  The next night, Brian, Dominic and I went to the Dunwoody Tree Lighting event in Dunwoody Village.  We met some of our neighbors there, which was nice, but apparently Dunwoody didn’t put as much money into it as previous years.  As a result, it wasn’t as big of a deal as last year…unfortunately.  Regardless, it was a nice way to kick-off the holiday season with Dominic.

Hanging out with Daddy at Light Up Dunwoody

On Tuesday, the last day before the schools started their Thanksgiving breaks, I took Dominic to visit Summit Hill (the school I taught at).  It was a lot of fun getting to see so many familiar faces.  The kids loved seeing Dominic, especially my kids from last year, who were by my side while I was pregnant last year.  Dominic loved seeing the kids too.  He apparently loves kids.  He, however, wasn’t as excited by most of the adults.  He was a bit clingy and also seriously examining everything he saw.  Being back at school made me miss teaching and working a bit, but then again with the way that everyone complained about the even larger amount of BS that is happening in the public schools, I remember why I was glad to leave.  Overall, a fun day and I look forward to going back again soon for another visit! 

Thanksgiving went pretty smoothly Thursday at our house, and Dominic had a great first Thanksgiving!  By the third year of hosting, I guess you become pretty good at it.  Cleaning wasn’t as big of an ordeal since I’d been keeping up on my cleaning daily being at home now.  With Brian’s family not coming, we also had fewer guests which may have made it a little manageable.  I honestly don’t think that made much of a difference though other than providing a little more elbow room at the dining room table.  My family LOVED getting to spend time with Dominic and play with him.  He loved eating his turkey and did a great job all day.  Dominic is such a little angel.    

"More turkey right here, please!" :)

After a day of cooking, hosting, and eating, Brian, Dominic, and I went over to my parents’ house for another meal the next day.  My cousins (my dad’s sister’s son and daughter Thad and Shannon) and Shannon’s husband Gary came down to see us.  Thad lives in Seattle, and Shannon and Gary live in DC.  Their mom (my aunt) was supposed to make the trip down from Tennessee with them but was having some back problems and didn’t end up coming unfortunately.  We spent the whole afternoon and evening hanging out at my parents’ house.  It made for a long couple of days but we enjoyed getting to catch up with everyone.

The Kittrells/Mortons/Fortenberrys

While at my parents’ house, our family’s 12 year old golden retriever Lacey started having a lot of trouble getting around.  Her back right leg kept giving out on her.  On Saturday, my sister Stephanie and my mom took Lacey to the vet.  Based on some initial screenings, the vet believes Lacey has muscle deterioration from old age and either a slipped disk or tumor on her spine that’s causing her to have problems getting signals from her brain to her leg.  They took her to the doggy hospital after that for a second opinion, which confirmed what the vet said.  Now they’re trying out some medicine on Lacey, and then steroids if that doesn’t help.  Surgery would have to be the next step if those things don’t work.  Needless to say Saturday ended up being a rough, emotional day on my family.    

Lacey, the best dog in the world

As all of that was going on, Dominic, Brian, and I also got to see Brian’s family on Saturday at his parents’ house.  With Brian’s sister Christina in town from DC, we wanted to make sure we got to see her.  They came over to our house on Wednesday night for a bit so they could see Dominic too.  It was great catching up with them and showing them all of Dominic’s latest “tricks.”  Unfortunately, Dominic’s stranger anxiety appeared to really start this week, so between a bunch of unfamiliar faces and so many people at once, Dominic wasn’t himself.  The same thing happened at my parents’ house with so many unfamiliar people there too.

On Saturday night, Brian, Stephanie, and I went to our friend Beth’s wedding in Roswell.  It was a beautiful ceremony and reception.  My parents sat for Dominic at their house.  Having their grandson seemed to make for a good distraction for my parents from the sadness about Lacey.  

Brian and me at Beth and Will's wedding

Obviously, it was a lot of activities in just a few days.  Who knew I would ever want Thanksgiving “Break” to be over with and get back to reality?  It makes me remember how I didn’t want Brian to leave Dominic and me to go back to work after Dominic’s first week at home.  I love spending weekends with Brian, but I guess I’ve really grown to love my structured, seemingly uneventful days with Dominic. :) 

Sweetest. Boy. Ever.