{it's a snowy one}

My name etched into a table at Caribou Coffee. How weird is that?

Yay! It's finally here. Snow! I know... wacky me. But it's true. I squeeled a little bit over it last night as honey and I got ready to rest under the covers. The frost, the glimmering icicles and the warm feeling you get in your heart when you think of all the fun holidays up ahead. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. All waiting and brand new and worth rediscovering all over again. I have some fun new things I want to try like old fashioned cookies using irons and such. I can't wait to post pictures of THOSE adventures. Probably means you'll see me in a bunch of flour and sticky with goopy dough, sugars and frosting. YAY!

What else has been going on? Well, next week, over Thanksgiving, honey and I will be bussing it to Cleveland with our polka group to perform on stage for all the admiring polka peoples. LOL! Not being home for the first time in my life for Thanksgiving is a kind of weird feeling. I've known for a while now so I've had plenty of time to process it but it still will be weird not going over to the house and enjoying that traditional meal with my sisters. I look forward to calling them though and hearing all about it. If it has snowed, how the turkey is doing or whatever savory meat mom has decided on, and if the cranberry salad worked better this year then last.

With marriage comes a whole new outlook on what family is. I think you grow up thinking that family and or family traditions are what they are because of what you have always remembered and I know a lot of people that get bent out of shape because a holiday or event has gone differently then they planned. The expected people weren't there, we didn't get the Butterball turkey we ALWAYS get and on and on. Also not many people get the advantage like I have of marrying into a kind and loving family. It has been a gift. A blessing of sweetness I could have never prayed enough for. =) I have gained, not lost. I am surrounded, not alone. And I feel treasured. Always. SO wonderful! =)

So what are your holiday plans? I look forward to hearing about them!