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.

    

Thankful

Hello everyone.  I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving.  I wanted to recap mine because I am doing something crazy again.  I found out I had some days left for the year to take off from work so I booked another trip.  I am flying out tonight.  Once we got back to work from the holiday I was busy trying to catch up with everything.  Then we were working on the schedule for the next few weeks and that’s when I found out about my extra days. I did not want a staycation so I jumped online to see what I could find.  Then voila!  A great deal appeared and I couldn't pass it up.  Let me recap Thanksgiving so I don’t get too far behind on my posts:
I was a little emotional for Thanksgiving Thursday.  With so much happening these past few weeks the holidays crept up on me.  I felt sad.  Some people won’t be celebrating with their loved ones and it hit me hard.
Once at my aunt’s I was mostly quiet.  I will say that if you do find yourself in a room full of people; let them speak.  It was nice hearing conversations instead of my thoughts going through my head.  I learned to appreciate my family’s stories about growing up in Guatemala.  They came so far away to be here.
My aunt did a great job hosting.  The food was delish.  In the end I did enjoy my time with them.  I pray everyone in my family remains together and safe.

I wore a preppy look for dinner 

The table is all set

My lovely cousins.  I am so proud of them.

Friendsgiving

Last Saturday I went to my very first Friendsgiving.  I have to say, I’ve been down lately.  I can’t help but feel guilty about the holidays coming up.  My friend just lost someone very close to her, and I wonder about her well-being.  It dawned on me how this time of year can trigger a lot of emotions, especially loneliness.  I guess that’s where Friendsgiving comes into play.

Let’s face it.  Sometimes we can’t choose our family.  But friends are a different story.  These are people who know you best, yet choose to spend time with you, confide in you, and love you unconditionally, no matter what.  I’m very grateful I have a set of good friends whom I cherish to death.  Despite not really being in the mood for holiday cheer, I showed up at the last minute to my first Friendsgiving.  I loved seeing my friends, although I was quiet most of the night.  I know tomorrow is going to be a lot for me.  I’m not feeling very talkative, but this is the only time I get to see most of my family all in one room.  It’s hard to get together with our hectic schedules.

I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving.  If by chance, you are spending it alone, watch a good flick on tv or catch up on book you’ve been wanting to read.  I am a huge fan of self-help books and the one I recommend is Big Magic.  Everyone has a purpose here on this earth, and this book will wake up your inspiration.  Until next time…

I wore a cowlneck sweater in camel.  The color is making a comeback this season.

I didn’t take any pictures there but this one.  I’ve never seen a bottle like this.  Too cute!

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

Thankful it's Friday!

We did it!  We survived the first official work week of the year!  I have to saw, it's been a tough week considering how slow it gets during the holidays.  Now that it's business as usual, I've been pretty sluggish.  I think it's because I took some days off during the holidays.  It made me lazy.  I'm hoping by next week I'll be back to my usual routine.  Not to mention, I've barely made it out to the gym this week.  Not a good way to start off making those resolutions.
While we're on the subject of resolutions, one of mine is to budget more carefully with my money this year.  I would like to build up my savings, plus trip book another trip.  I'm still working on when and where, but it's exciting thinking about all the possibilities!
When it comes to November, the obvious thing that comes up on everyone's mind is Thanksgiving.  It is definitely becoming one of my favorite holidays, mostly because it gets my family together.  Unfortunately, my family is not as close as I would like it to be, but this gives everyone a chance to catch up with one another.  My mom insisted that we had Thanksgiving at her house this year.  Over the years, my mom and my aunts usually discuss hosting duties, but my mom wanted to do things differently.  She was pretty emotional around this time, and I realized it was because it was a major holiday without her husband.  She just wanted me and my brothers with her and no one else.  I think everyone understood and left her alone on this.  She is still grieving.   It's ok if she wanted something more intimate.  She also reached out to our step brother to see if he would join us, and he did.  It was nice seeing him as well.  We haven't had the chance to see him much since his dad passed away. 
Regardless, my mom cooked up a mean turkey and we all had a blast.  I think my mom wanted to feel like a mom again and take care of us for a night.  There's nothing wrong with that.

I like my new bomber jacket.  Reminds me of the singer The Weeknd! 

I wore my burnt orange rag & bone jeggings.  They kind of match my carpet.  lol

 My step brother with my older brother.  Technically I'm the oldest but he's the one in charge..

My two brothers.  I'm the only girl in this household...

Me and my mom.  This was a tough time for her.  I hope she knows we're all here for her...

My mom in the kitchen.  Everything came out perfectly!

The table is all set!

Lucky is my mom and her husband's dog.  Even though I'm terribly allergic to him, I'm glad he's there keeping my mom company.  He's over 2 years old, but still a puppy.  He keeps my mom on her toes.