Thankful to Be a Whole Better Me

Now that I've come out of the food coma that Thanksgiving so often puts me in, I've become quite reflective and still quite thankful. One hundred and fifty years ago Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a day of thanks and, in spite of their best efforts, retailers have not yet stripped the day of the value it holds for us. Free from the controversy of Christmas (religion, gift-mongering, etc), the materialistic connotations of Valentine's Day (expensive gifts and dinners), and the downright danger of Independence Day (heavy drinking + explosives), Thanksgiving remains relatively true to its original intent. A day of thanks to be spent surrounded by the people – and possibly things – for which you're most thankful.

Maybe I'm getting old or maybe it's hormones, but I find myself more sentimental than ever and Thanksgiving is as sentimental a time as any. This year Rick and I celebrated a milestone by hosting Thanksgiving for the first time in our new home. You see, once cooking an entire dinner for ten became too much for my grandmother and my parents moved out of state Thanksgiving turned into a haphazard holiday. Sometimes I spent it at my parents without Rick because he works on Friday can't travel out of state or with Rick and his family in Chicago but without any of my extended family. This year was the first time that we were all able to spend it together. And it was glorious (queue the choir!).

The day after Thanksgiving we also hosted the second annual 'Friendsgiving'. All of our friends gather – in pajamas no less – to gorge on (and hopefully deplete) leftovers while simply enjoying each other's company. You would think we'd all be too tired to get together the day after Thanksgiving, but it's a tradition that we plan to keep going as long as we can.

After two days surrounded by friends and family I realized what I am truly thankful for, though I was unable to declare it aloud. As cheesy as it sounds I am most thankful for Rick. Rick brings out the best in me. He is my other half in so many ways. He's calm when I'm stressed, he's stressed when I'm calm. He's talkative when I'm distracted and playful when I'm crabby. We fit each other like puzzle pieces. He also has brought so much to my life. His love, his family, his friends they're all a part of me now that I wouldn't trade for the world.

While a life partner may not be able to bring an ecosystem of friends and family to you, they should be able pinch-hit where you fall short and you should do the same. You can be whole on your own...never forget that! But a true love will make you an even better whole.

Happy Holidays from the Ramirez Family!

Rick and I got a nice little break this holiday season with my parents coming into town and his family having their usual Christmas Eve party. It was an easy split with my family's traditional Christmas Day party. No missed flights, no last minute calls from work, or no forlorn phone calls to one or the other's family hundreds of miles away. The usual suspects were absent. "Usual suspects" being overwhelmingly represented by my immediate family. Sister, brother, niece, nephew...we know the drill. The recentness of the wedding which brought a bunch of my family out of the woodwork makes the absentee pill a little easier to swallow.  Rick's family has outgrown any of each other's houses, so this year they utilized an old bar belonging to a family friend.  This is the same abandoned bar where Rick celebrated his Bachelor party.  When he told me the guys were concerned that the strippers wouldn't come inside the place I was sure that having the Christmas party there was out of the question.  I mean this bar hadn't been occupied - or even kept up - for years.  But after weeks of clean up and the decorating expertise of a family friend, it was surprisingly clean and festive. In all it was a really great time, although Christmas day was made quite difficult by the Christmas Eve party.

I've come to build an interesting relationship with Rick's oldest sister and her husband.  I'm actually becoming more and more aware of the relationships that I have with Rick's siblings as individuals.  With such a large crew it's hard to realize how you really interact with each person singularly.  Rick's oldest sister and her husband are the kind of people that we can stay up all night with just talking and drinking.  Not doing anything special; just sitting around the table, sipping good tequila, and talking about life.  Clearly all that talking got away from us because it was after 5am when we finally looked at the clock. With my parents coming to our house that morning to open gifts I knew we were in for a rough one. Rick was lucky enough to get a second wind once he got home and walked the dog at which time he insisted we open a few presents. We were two presents in when he started to fall asleep sitting up. By that time it was easily 6:30am.  My parents did us the justice of not showing up until around 11am, but we still were rather rough for the wear.  Opened presents then back to bed.  We weren't ourselves at my Grandmother's house, but it was probably better that we couldn't have any of my Dad's (knock-you-on-your-you-know-what) egg nog.  As usual  my family brought back many great memories and made even more.

Looking forward to the all the great things this New Year will bring.  On the menu so far: a real budget that should have us back in the market for a house before the next decade (yay!), a lot of Cancer killing, maybe a 'Cancer-cation', preparations for my Golden Birthday, babytalk (from everyone besides us), and much, much more to come!