Holidays...

Its starting already.

Who else has half of their Christmas shopping done?

I know, its disgusting. I really do.




Right now though, I'm stuck. Neil and I have already made plans for Christmas, unfortunatley, they are separate. Why? I will be in Arizona. I need to be with my mom. He will be in North Carolina, because his step-niece and nephew will not be with their mom (Allison, Neil's brother Ray's wife) next year, and his mom asked for his whole family to be together with the kids. They haven't had a holiday together in a long time. His sister is flying out from Oregon, and all 3 kids will be together for Christmas for the first time in they can't even remember how long.

Last Thanksgiving, we were in Costa Rica, with his mom, and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with his mom. The year before that, I was in Arizona for Christmas and we spent Thanksgiving with is dad. See a pattern? Neil doesn't come with me for holidays with my family, and my dad gets overlooked.

This year I have had a really heavy heart and a strong desire to actually spend Thanksgiving with my dad. The last few years, he has done a dinner the Saturday after, but not only was I still in Costa Rica last year, it just isn't the same.

Last weekend, my dad called, invited Neil and I to his house for Thanksgiving, and said we'll decide on the details later. No problem, except Neil doesn't remember talking about it. My memory isn't perfect either, but I know we talked about eating at my dad's, then going to his dad's over the weekend.

Apparently, that conversation didn't happen. Neil's dad called today and invited us to Thanksgiving dinner with their family. Neil agreed, then called me to let me know the plan.

Their dinner is far enough away we can't do both. We haven't seen his dad this year (okay Neil went fishing with him once, for half a day), and I'd really like to spend time with his side of the family- I haven't met anyone there.

And now I'm thinking, how much of an overeacting emotional something am I? I'm crying (almost) over this.

But is it really too much to ask to spend time with my family too?

No, it isn't.

So I'm going to take a deep breath, and move on to something else.

Its one holiday. There will be plenty more to share.