Thanksgiving Weekend 2018

Well it’s almost the end of the year but I made it to Thanksgiving weekend posts!  Lol.  This is where things got more awkward between me and my mom.  She ended up having flood issues in her garden apartment.  On Thanksgiving Day, go figure.  I felt bad.  She didn’t have the chance to cook the dish she wanted to bring over to my aunt’s.  In the end she made a cold pasta dish.  It was good.  She seemed very anxious as well, but was trying to keep her business low key during dinner.  For the most part me and my family were having a lovely evening, but my mom wanted to go home early.  Me and my brother dropped her off. 

The next day, the landlord was trying to see what was wrong.  Unfortunately, he ended up making things worse.  The pipe burst and they had to shut the water off.  It was very frustrating for my mom.  She would shower in her neighbor’s bathroom across the street.  The landlord informed her due to the holiday weekend, the plumber would stop by on Sunday.  We had plans with my dad for dinner on Small Business Saturday, but my younger brother decided to cancel on them.  Another dispute that I couldn’t win.  In the end, he called me up and told me if I wanted to have dinner with my mom instead.  They both came over to my place and I ordered Thai food for all of us.  It wasn’t planned, but I think my mom enjoyed being out of the house away from her drama.  In the end, she stayed with my aunt and uncle who also have a dog.  My mom’s dog and their dog had a blast.  I felt good knowing my mom was safe with them. 

On Thanksgiving Sunday, my younger brother texted me when I was finishing up at the gym.  He wanted to know if I was up for having dinner with my dad.  I was upset because it would have been better for me to do this the night before, but I couldn’t say no.  I haven’t seen my dad in months.  He picked me up and off we went.

My older brother was working and was going to show up later.  Unfortunately, there was a snow storm coming in, and we had to leave right after dinner.  I’m glad I had the chance to catch up with my dad.  It was a weird holiday for all of us but we did manage to spend time with one another.

    

A Slava Thanksgiving...

As we're approaching the holidays, I'm finally recapping Thanksgiving week in November!  Hey at least I'm making an effort!  This is what started it all.  The constant birthday/holiday bonanza goes from here onto New Year's Eve.  January is pretty slow everywhere you look so I'm hoping I will catch up with my blog then. 
I actually like Thanksgiving more than Christmas.  Who doesn't love good food?  Well in my case, that week was pretty busy.  My friend hosted his Slava that Monday so me and my friends headed up to Skokie after work.  It was nice seeing my friends and their little ones.  If it weren't for events like this one, we wouldn't be able to catch up with one another.  I loved their stuffed cabbage!!  Perfect for fall!

Blessed for the guests!  Everyone takes a spoonful...

Absolutely LOVE stuffed cabbage!!

That Thanksgiving Thursday me and my brothers headed over to my mom's.  I can tell she's been more sensitive than usual, so it was nice having a dinner at her place.  Sometimes she misses having all three of us at once, but it's hard now that we're older.  We're not kids anymore.  It was also nice that she finally put the dog in the next room.  This has been a struggle for me and my brother.  I have asthma and he has allergies.  My little brother is fine, but for us, it's horrible.  My mom's husband got the dog on a whim and they never properly trained him to be alone.  He has been known to bark up a storm when he's by himself.  Luckily, now that my mom is home most of the time, she would put up the dog fence in the kitchen and let him stay there when she is in another room of the house.  That helped him get use to it and it worked out perfectly for us.  The dog stayed in the kitchen while we had our feast.  He would whimper from time to time, but because my mom would come and go to grab more food, he stayed silent the rest of the evening.

Checkout that bird!

We ate like kings...

Me and my mom

Me and my brother are the only ones who have problems with the dog...

My younger brother does not.  He does not suffer from allergies or asthma...

Pies galore...

In the dog house.  I'm pretty sure now he hates us.

On Black Friday I opted not to shop.  I did not want to be a part of that madness, so I cleaned up my apartment and made my way to the gym.  It was a pretty chill day for me until the evening.  My friend had signed up a bunch of us to go to Whirly Ball for an event.  I haven't been there in years and was pleasantly surprised they had done some renovations.  We had a blast considering we did terrible at the carts.  Afterwards, we watched our team play bowling ball.  This was a fun idea and I'm glad we did it.

It's always a good time to play!

Goofing around with the crew...



We had the lanes to ourselves...

The next day on Saturday I went to my friend's party.  Her family was celebrating her brother's and father's birthday, so it was a double treat for them.  Again, there was a ton of food, but we laughed alot.  I always thought my friend's family is a blast.  Everyone always loves going to their parties.  I felt so fortunate to have spent my Thanksgiving week with friends and family and am looking forward to seeing everyone again this weekend.  I hope everyone has a great holiday!!!  Remember the gift of giving joy to one another!  The world needs this now.  Sometimes it's better than receiving presents...

Double birthday parties

Father and son

More food galore!

The happy couple!



Our friend's son had a blast!

Monday Blues

Last night David Bowie passed away.  I'm so sad about this.  He just celebrated a birthday a few days ago.  I think what surprised me the most was that he was battling cancer for the past 18 months.  The news media said very little of his health condition.  He even released a new album!  The fact that he did this privately shows me how difficult this must have been to keep his condition a secret.  Having a terminal illness puts people in a awkward situation.  They first have to come in terms of their illness and then consult their options with doctors and family.  Who they share this information with afterwards is the hard part.  My heart goes out to Iman and Bowie's family.  This is devastating news to the music industry and to the world.  He was a true visionary. 
For the past 2 months, the holidays came and went, but one thing that never left my mind was making sure my mom felt loved and needed.  She was emotional on Thanksgiving, and on Christmas Eve, she left to go home early after having dinner at my aunt's.  New Year's Eve she did the same thing since she had to get up early to go to work.  Since then things have slowed down at her job, so she's been at home resting.  Unfortunately, now the weather has gone frigid.  I want to make sure she doesn't go crazy being stuck at home.  I know I have!  I stayed in this past weekend because of the weather, too, but having cabin fever is a problem when you have nothing to do.  I downloaded an album off iTunes and blasted away so that helped.  Plus the Golden Globes was on last night and that was pretty entertaining.  Sometimes you have to use these pastimes to not drive yourself crazy. 
Back to last November's events.  After Thanksgiving Thursday, I stayed in for Black Friday.  I knew I might go crazy with all of the sales going on, but I really wanted to focus on finishing up all of my Christmas shopping first.  It's hard to stay on track by budgeting alone, and since I started to focus on my apartment more these past few months, I think it helped me feel at "home" finally.  I have slowly bought a few Christmas pieces to my place.  Instead of a traditional Christmas tree, I bought an LED birch tree to display in front of my fireplace.  I figured it would be easier than to get a tree and having to get ornaments for it.  I also figured out that it DOES take time to get those special Christmas pieces you want to fill up in your home.  You can't just go out and buy everything you want because it takes years to get what you are really looking for.  I'm secretly jealous of what my mom has for her Christmas decorations, but I know for a fact they've been around for over 20 years.  You can't get this stuff anywhere else, plus every year there's always new things being put out to add to your home.  I made it a point to buy things I really love and not get things to "fill up" in the meantime.

That following Saturday my friend invited us to her dad's birthday celebration.  Her parents are well known in the Filipino community, so there were a lot of people at her parents' house.  I loved the fact that so many people showed up despite the cold weather we were having that day.  Plus it was nice seeing my friends since Thanksgiving is the start of the holiday craze.  I also got a chance to see my friend's baby boy.  He was born back in July and the last time I saw him was in September.  We had a good time that day and even stayed out at their place past midnight!  Time flies when you're having fun!


The birthday boy!



HUGE TURNOUT!



He's getting so big!



The money shot!  You don't know how hard it was for us to get him to look at the camera!  lol

Girls Night Out...

Since today is Happy Hump Day Wednesday, I thought it would be fun to mention my girls night out back in November.  Don't get me wrong.  There are times where me and my friends like to get together for some drinks to catch up with one another.   But that month in particular, everyone needed to go all out for some much needed fun!  One night in particular, our friend invited us out for a sushi night at Butterfly Sushi.  She had just settled in her new apartment and has been out of the loop for a bit.  Since I hurried on home from work, I switched into jeans and wore my Halloween headpiece AGAIN to spice up my look. lol.This was a nice time to catch up since the upcoming holidays were going to be hectic for everyone.  I wasn't in the mood so much to hangout because my throat was hurting.  The winter of 2014 was definitely not my healthiest.  I was sick 3 times before I finally gave in and went to the doctor.  I tried to ride it out with lots of green tea but it was kicking my butt.  Regardless, I went along and had a good time.  We ended up down the street at The Dawson for some cocktails afterwards. 

 I LOVE my friend's fur vest from Argentina!



Once Thanksgiving was over, Black Friday was the talk of the town.  I opted NOT to join in the madness and do some online shopping instead.  I usually find pretty good deals.  Regardless, in the nightlife scene, this weekend is a difficult one because a lot of people are either out of town or spending time with family.  What did we do?  We decided to paint the town red!  lol  We figured we could hop around and get a chance to enjoy new venues.  We first started off at the rooftop at The Godfrey Hotel for some drinks and conversation.  Our group of  3 quickly escalated to about 10 in a matter of time.  I had fun running around and meeting new people.  We took a little field trip down to Parliament nightclub and danced the night away!  I also had my first drink of Dom Perignon and I must say, I was impressed!  I'm not a fan of champagne but that was good.. 

We were photo bombed by the bartenders!  Too funny!

Our group is slowly growing...

At Parliament getting silly...

 

The next day our girlfriend was going to entertain her co-workers to a night out.  I was pretty beat from the night before, so I knew I was going to take it easy.  My other friends joined in the festivities, and I was happy to see them.  It's hard to get everyone together in one place.  I told myself that this was the last night of the remaining year that I will wear my Halloween headpiece.  It was time to retire this trendy accessory and save it for another occasion.  But in the meantime, I matched it up with my gold leather pencil skirt and off I went.  We headed to Bevy nightclub for some hip hop and ended up at The Mid for some major EDM.  Cassette was djing, so the place was packed!  Overall, both nights were long and crazy, but I loved every minute of it!  Sometimes the unexpected moments are the most memorable ones...