hers Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Part of starting a family is starting new traditions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Part of starting a family is starting new traditions I've actually never spend Christmas Day ANYWHERE other than my childhood. All my life. It's sad to be away from your family, OG, but I think you'll love it more when you build traditions with your kids in the UK, in your own home. Your mom is just going to have to understand this. One of the best part of the holidays was being in that same home, with the same people (parents, sibs) and we had a lot of cool fun traditions that I always looked forward to. Traveling may take some of that away. Exactly. I want to have the tradition of L, me, and the kids getting up on Christmas morning and sitting around the table, them having a cup of tea, me a cup of coffee, and then L handing out the presents. Some of my (few) happy memories growing up were of Christmas, and I think that's why I love it so much. My mom knows this but I think she's still going to find it an abrupt change. I have requested off for this Christmas (i worked last Christmas so I get first say so anyway) since this will be my last christmas here. She's happy about that, at least. Fudgie - I think I will too, especially since we get the lovely job of joining American and english traditions together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 So I got dressed for the gym and went to the gym but I didn't stay more than 5 minutes. I was the only one in there - which wasn't the bad part because I didn't have to wear my head phones to listen to music - but a few minutes into my workout these two guys came in. Now, I have been alone in the gym before with a guy or two and never felt weirded out but for some reason these two just sent my sixth sense to running. It doesn't help that the gym layout sucks. The treadmills are right in the center and there is no mirror in front of you to see behind you - if you want to see behind you you have to look behind you or look to the mirror at the side. So I just didn't feel comfortable so I left. sucks because I was looking forward to that work out but OG has a saying - If, for any reason I become uneasy about a situation, I quickly vacate said situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annie24 Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 i think you did the right thing! listen to your gut!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 i think you did the right thing! listen to your gut!!!! It was def screaming at me. Guys could have been harmless but some how I just don't see why you would come to a gym with a can of beer.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejigsup Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 OG, if your mother wants to see the kids so bad at Christmas time, maybe it would be easier for her to cross the pond and come to see you? I can't even imagine traveling that far with kids. I have traveled halfway accross the country with one child a couple of times and I'm telling you, it ain't no walk in the park on a sunny day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fudgie Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Isn't it also less expensive for her to fly over and stay with you? Fewer people to transport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 OG, if your mother wants to see the kids so bad at Christmas time, maybe it would be easier for her to cross the pond and come to see you? I can't even imagine traveling that far with kids. I have traveled halfway accross the country with one child a couple of times and I'm telling you, it ain't no walk in the park on a sunny day! this would be the ideal situation but my mom refuses to fly - let me rephrase. She will fly to England if I die so she can see me 'one last time' but she will not, not, not, not, not fly to see the birth of her grandchildren. Makes sense, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Isn't it also less expensive for her to fly over and stay with you? Fewer people to transport. Depends actually. It's cheaper for L to fly to see me (about $700) than for me to fly to see him (my ONE WAY ticket next Oct will cost us $1,400). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hers Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Jared and I didn't do anything on Christmas last year. I started my blog that day, out of boredom, actually. He wasn't feeling well, and it was raining so much, and he had to work the next day and the day before. His parents were at his sister's 2 hours away, and all of my family was down in Orlando. Neither of us wanted to travel anywhere b/c of his work schedule. We slept in, then got up and tinkered around the house. We ended up going to Waffle House for breakfast. Then we came back, he napped, and I started my blog. We went to see a movie later that afternoon, and on a whim, his friend called us and invited us over to his parents' for dinner b/c his mom cooked a big dinner but they would have so many leftoevers. Jared used to be close with that guy's parents so we went. We had a lovely dinner with people I'd never met before. Then we came back home and went to bed. I can honestly say it was one of the best Christmases ever. We talked about what we want to do for xmas this year. He and I both sort of agreed that we loved how low maintenance last year's Christmas was and how we'd like to have that again. So we'll probably do that again this year. I totally understand what you mean. The way I look at it, there are 2 sides of family in a married couple's life. If they live far apart, someone's gonna end up getting pissed. We just weren't willing to piss anyone off last year. When we buy a house, we'll host Christmas at our house to those who want to come but if not, no big deal. Some people just don't deal well with change, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 ^ I agree. That first Christmas with me and L will be super low key - since I will hopefully have just found a job! - so literally if all we do is drink tea and coffee and order pizza in for Christmas dinner and open our gifts from each other (if we do gifts with all the other expenses we have to deal with) I will love that. I'm going to try to ship a few of my Christmas decorations over, mostly the ornaments that are one of a kind that I know I can't get any were else (like some gold ball ornaments my aunt gave me and like my silk Baby's first Christmas ornament) so hopefully all we will have to buy that first Christmas is a tree! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 On a side note, American football season has started. *groan* My entire facebook is filled with 'Go Dawgs!' and 'Go Clemson!' and 'Go Gamecocks!' Ugggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hers Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Ugh, I hate football season with Facebook. mine has been ROLL TIDE, WDE, and GO GATORS or NOLES. I DONT CARE!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Yeah, it's ridiculous. I don't care who you shout for, until football season ends, your posts are on my ignore list! Except for Mama Met - she's at least tame about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 I developed a headache in like 5 minutes, what the hell? Nights like tonight I need my nimble fingered fiance here for a neck rub. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sophie274 Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 I've flown US to Paris, London or Dublin and back for 700ish dollars last year and in the past few years. There should easily be tickets under $1000 for an off-season time such as October (sometimes it's cheaper to buy roundtrip and just not use the return leg). I grew up with the two sides of my family in different countries (one accross an ocean), and my nuclear family in a third country. I moved 6 times with my parents before I graduated from high school, all of those moves between different countries, and we've spent Christmases in a bunch of different places, at various grandparents' houses, at "home", on vacation. In spite of that, I feel a really strong sense of what Christmas means for my family. I don't think location matters at all in carving out family traditions. My father always took my sister and me to buy a Christmas tree, and we always decorated it together listening to Christmas music. We have a couple of cultural traditions we do in the month lead-up to Christmas. We all have our stockings and would travel with them to whatever location, go to Church, Dad would cook on Xmas day and New Years. Santa Claus usually left a note ... Stuff like that, it really doesn't matter where you are. I just think, if it's financially feasible, that it's a shame not to travel to relatives' houses for the holidays if that's a way for the family to be together. I am not very close to extended family, and very close to my sister and parents - it's mostly always just been the 4 of us - but I really enjoyed having Xmas with the extended family because it felt festive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Well, we will be paying for the ticket in August at the earliest - since we can't but the ticket until the visa is approved - otherwise we could just book it six months in advance and save a ton of money, booking last minute like that is what is really killing us. I agree, having holidays with extended family is amazing. When I was growing up we would do Christmas at home (me, my mom, dad, brother, and sister) and open our gifts from mom and dad there. Then we would go my grandparents house and open gifts from them and so forth. Since my grandfather had heart surgery years ago, we have moved Christmas to the recpetion hall of my grandparent's church - their house was too small for all of us and loud noise in tight areas like that upset Papa - so, for me, it hasn't felt like christmas in the past 5 years, simply because Christmas to me was at Nanny and Papa's. It's still festive and my cousins and I still hit each other with foil but it's not the same. We wouldn't rule out flying in AFTER Christmas - like a day or two after - and spending New Years with my family but the actual Christmas day, at least until the kids are older to remember the trip, I want to be in England, in our home, simply because those Christmas memories for me were the early morning ones in our home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DN Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Lord, my mom wants us to come over for Christmas - on Cnristmas Day - after we have kids. I was like mom, I do want to start traditions with our kids when it comes to the holidays, whic means we will probably never, accept for the odd one, be back here on an actual holiday.When the kids are very small (under two) they won't remember where they have Christmas and you can still develop some traditions even if you are somewhere else. For me the best Christmases were where the kids were old enough and young enough to believe in Santa Claus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 When the kids are very small (under two) they won't remember where they have Christmas and you can still develop some traditions even if you are somewhere else. For me the best Christmases were where the kids were old enough and young enough to believe in Santa Claus. Yeah, I know they won't remember but it's also about starting traditions with me and L as well. Sure, you can d that anywhere in the world but it's never the same as waking up in your own house on Christmas morning. Add that to the cost of traveling during the holidays... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanutbutterandjelly Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 is it football season already? I dont mind watching football once in a while, but I can't stand people constantly talking about their teams. And I mean constantly. There always seems to be more trash talk during football season more than any other, but maybe that's just me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 is it football season already? I dont mind watching football once in a while, but I can't stand people constantly talking about their teams. And I mean constantly. There always seems to be more trash talk during football season more than any other, but maybe that's just me. Naw, I see it too. I just can't ever keep uo with the ball so it's something I can't watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanutbutterandjelly Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 i never really pay attention to the ball when I watch football, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 5, 2011 Author Share Posted September 5, 2011 Long day at work. Pew! I made it to the gym tonight - there were a few people there so I felt pretty safe to go. I really pushed myself on the treadmill tonight. I jogged at about a 3 incline for five minutes and then rested for 5, then upped the incline to 4 and jogged again. That second time really took a lot out of me. When I stopped and started walking again it was actually kind of hard to breath. Not in a bad way, just, it felt like there was something sitting on my chest and I sounded like someone with asthma trying to catch their breath. But cooling down after the run everything was fine, I even worked some of the machines as well tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OptomisticGirl Posted September 5, 2011 Author Share Posted September 5, 2011 We got to talking about sharks today at work and I had recently read an article about a shark attack in Australia. I have to say, I think I feel about shark attacks the way L feels about plane crashes - it's the only way to die I would be content with dying that way. Weird, huh? I mean, L wouldn't mind dying in a plane crash because we learn from every plane crash so that the same thign doesn't happen again. Shark attacks we don't LEARN from them but it's me putting myself in the animals environment - if I become it's food, well, it just means natural selection threw the dice and I came up short. I have a huge amount of respect for sharks. Which is weird because I will not go in the ocean past my knees but it's my respect for them that causes me not to venture out too far. That's their world, they can have it. If I want to go swimming (er, the very little swimming I can do) I will go to a pool. If I make myself up to look like your favorite food, I would expect you to take a chunk out of me. I'm not going to like dying that way but again, natural selection at work. L has actually went cage diving with Great Whites in South Africa and I would LOVE to do that. I'm not normally a thrill seeker (hello, loner here) but something about that just gets me ubber excited. It's like the fear and awe of seeing them in their natural habitat... I'm pretty sure I would poo myself the first time I saw one of them coming out of the darkness of the ocean but that's why we have wet suits. We have talked about doing it for an anniversary - probably not while the kids are growing up JUST in case - but maybe for like our 20 or 30 year anniversary. And this time we can have pictures to remember it by! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DN Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 and I came up short. Was that an intentional joke about being bitten? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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