The Last Thanksgiving (& as requested, more Levi pictures)

First things first - madmad asked me in one of her comments where are the pics of Levi - so just for her, here are a some pictures of him making funny faces. (my favorite one being the sepia toned one. He was sleeping when I took that, and he happened to make a face and open his eyes, LOL)

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. *What? Are you a little confused? Didn't know it was Thanksgiving did you? That would explain all the turkey that was on your table yesterday* It was the last Thanksgiving that I am going to celebrate here in the US. Or at least for a while anyway. I thought I would be somewhat sad, or something. But nope. I am actually happy because with my next Thanksgiving, I will be saying thank you for being able to be with my husband again.

I went to my moms for dinner, it was just us, my mom and Rob, her husband. It was a nice calm dinner- well as calm as it could be with 7 children - 5 of whom are 4 and under. Oh wait, I keep forgetting, I only had 6 kids with me. Jordan was at her fathers house.

I gave my mom the turkey to cook, and she made mashed potatoes, green beans and had applesauce. I sent over some pudding mix, and some graham cracker crusts so that I could make a couple of "pies" for dessert. (can you really call pudding mix in a crust a pie?) I sent it earlier in the week so that it was less that I had to bring. So I was in charge of bringing milk to make the pies, as well as stuffing, or at least the mix to make when I got there.

When I left, I left with the kids, a package of hot dogs and buns (for lunch) and thats it. I didn't bring the stuffing, nor the milk.

The reason why I forgot to bring everything was because I got detained. About 10 minuted before I was ready to walk out the door my husband called, and for once, the day that I wanted to get out the door on time, he wanted to talk for more than 5/10 minutes. It was nice though, I needed to just talk to him for a while. To connect with him, if that makes sense. He had his son Sendi there with him, and by the time I hung up I was in a great mood.

Before I go any further, let me give a bit of background. There are some issues with Sendi and Gisela and I. When they met me, we got along great. They spent a couple of days with Lale and I when I was in Honduras, but the problem was they didn't know who I was. (they just thought I was a friend of their fathers, not his wife. Its a long story and maybe one day I will tell it, LOL) But once they found out who I was, I became the enemy. I became the woman who took their father away from them, and because of me, it really hit home that their mom and dad weren't getting back together. I have never blamed them for that, because I know that the way things were handled the wrong way, by both their mom and their dad. And I have been there and done that as far as being a child of divorce. So I understood. For the longest time they wouldn't even acknowledge Mickey, Isa, Johan, and Lana as their brothers and sister. But they have come around, and with Levi, they were excited for him to be born. Its been a long road these past four years, and with Gisela we are at a better place, but Sendi has never had anything nice to say about me, and has never talked to me after he found out.

Well the last time I talked to Lale, (before yesterday) Sendi was there and he actually got on the phone for a couple of minutes and we talked. Nothing big, just the how are you, hows school etc. etc. Then yesterday when I was talking to Lale, Sendi was in the background joking around with me through Lale. It was nice, and it made me happy. Maybe once we all get there, things wont be as I keep imagining them to be.

I was also happy because this is one less holiday down, and only one more big one to go - which means I got out of spending time with my one brother Dickie and his wife Angie, and their two rotton kids. I love my brother I really do. But I can't spend time with him and his family because they really don't know how to act. My brother and his wife are ignorant and 90% of the time one of them open their mouths they put their foot in their mouth. (I wrote about her in a blog last year - and I was being nice in my blog too) Or someone wants to put a fist in their mouth. Or maybe a bit of both.

I do my best not to be around them because so far I have been able to keep my temper in check, and I have done my best to ignore her, but one of these days I am not going to be able keep my mouth shut, and I am going to end up causing problems (although I am sure I would get a round of applause as well). It is sad too, that my mother doesn't like to spend alot of time with them either. How sad is it that?

So come Christmas time, I just have to be sure not to answer the phone if I see their number on my ID (which I probably wont because I think in the last 12 months they have called me once, maybe twice) and I certainly wont be calling them.