Post Holiday Come Down

I'm a little ticked off at myself-I completely forgot to take pictures of the new dishes I made for Thanksgiving. I'm especially ticked, as I really enjoyed them and wanted to post them on my blog. I haven't been doing a whole lot of recipe posts lately, mainly because I haven't cooked anything new in quite a while. We are currently dealing with the upcoming end of Will's fall semester, which means tests, papers, quizzes, and finals the week after next. He has one more speech to give (tomorrow night) for his speech class, and I encouraged him to take a page out of Dwight Shrute's book.

Although to be fair, Dwight took a page out of Mussolini's book.

I'm looking forward to the end of this semester, partly because I know Will is crazy stressed right now and just wants the following week to be over and done with. I don't blame him. I remember those last couple of weeks every trimester at Lawrence (yes, we were the cool kids who had trimesters instead of semesters), and I don't miss it. I don't miss studying in the library until 2am with bleary eyes and a mug of cold coffee next to me. I don't miss trying to balance my major in the college with my major in the conservatory. I miss the class discussions, the reading material, and the opportunity to learn something new every day. I don't miss the ungodly stress, and I really feel for my poor husband right now. He's doing a fantastic job of balancing school time, Army time and family time, and I really admire that. I just know he's feeling the pressure right now, with his upcoming finals and the upcoming holiday. Which brings me to my next point...

It seems as though everyone-myself included-is set to pack away everything related to Thanksgiving and start gearing up for Christmas. On one hand, I'm really excited. I love the season of Advent, I love Christmas, and I just love all the fun and holiday-ish family opportunities that are offered this season. Especially now since Tony is at an age where he gets excited when he sees Christmas lights, enjoys the holiday music, and (hopefully! keeping those fingers crossed) won't burst into tears when he sees Santa. On the other hand, I'm a little hesitant to start hanging the garland and baking gingerbread cookies. It just feels a little odd to be decorating for Christmas when it's only November 25, and I really don't want Tony, or T-Quad, or any future children of ours to only see Christmas as the month when they get to open presents under the tree. Sure, sure, that's something every child looks forward to; I certainly did myself. But I also want them to understand WHY we celebrate Christmas, and the importance of giving and helping those who are less fortunate, and making time for prayer and reflection during the season of Advent. Don't get me wrong, I'm a total holiday junkie. I love decorating our house, I love playing Christmas music, I love sending out Christmas cards to our families and friends. I love baking cookies and giving them as gifts, I love making peppermint hot chocolate and watching little kid movies like the Polar Express, the Santa Clause, Home Alone (oh, and of course A Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!). There's nothing wrong with wanting to make the holidays a happy, fun, exciting time for your family. I just think that there can be a happy medium. We can still make hot chocolate and decorate our Christmas tree with Bing Crosby or the Merry Mancini Christmas CD playing in the background, and light the Advent wreath each Sunday night before dinner, and say a prayer as a family. We can still get Tony's picture taken with Santa and enjoy wrapping presents for him, and look forward to the beauty of Midnight Mass. I love that our Catholic faith gives us so many wonderful traditions this time of year, and I love that our children will grow up with an appreciation and a love for both religious and secular holiday celebrations. 

Well, that's all for now, as I have a warm, comfy bed and a mug of hot tea calling my name. Stay tuned for-hopefully-some recipe posts next week, and hopefully my last post on Why I Am Choosing Natural Childbirth. (How many times am I going to say "hopefully?" I'm just...uh....giving myself the opportunity to back out of any posting obligations. Yep, that's it).