Thankful

I'm not sure why the holidays bring out such a sentimentality in me.  Maybe it's the music.  Perhaps it's the lights.  Maybe it's the emphasis on noticing one's blessings and giving thanks.  Whatever it is, I have been filled this weekend with a sense of gratitude.  We are beyond lucky to be living this life.  Beyond blessed.  It may be imperfect (well, it's definitely imperfect), chaotic at times (lots of times), and awfully messy at others (90% of the time), but damn...it's a good life.  It's a really good life.

Thanksgiving Day was the beginning of my journey into thankfulness.  I know, I know.  Let's try for a little more originality, Crimmins.  But I will say that the gratitude hit me especially hard this year.  Let me walk you through our day a bit, and I'll explain along the way.

We started the morning off with a 5 mile Turkey Trot race in Alexandria, VA.  I completed the same race last year with some friends, but this year my two favorite boys decided to join me.  Conor hemmed and hawed about it the morning of the race, but I know he was glad we did it.  And, by the way, he did great.  Finished just a few minutes past 1 hour and pushing a jogging stroller no less.  Great job, babe!

Okay, here was the lowdown on the race.  The weather was perfect -- sunny and just a tad chilly -- and the neighborhood spirit of the race was just heartwarming.  There were Turkey Trot Tailgates where people were boozing it up (okay, that was more envy-inspiring than heartwarming), small children with booths set up for water, and tons of signs wishing us a "Happy Thanksgiving."  As I pounded the pavement, albeit slowly, I just felt so grateful to be healthy and to be able to run a race like this on Thanksgiving.  To feel the sun on my hair and the blood pumping through my legs...it was just one of those grand moments of aliveness.  You know those moments?  Of course, I also kept thinking about the little person who is growing inside of me and how we were running this race together on Thanksgiving Day.  It was our fourth race together, can you believe it?  Little overachiever, already stacking up the competitive events before even entering the world.  Geez. 

Moving on...Another wonderful thing about the race was the fun of seeing all the festive costumes on some of the runners.  Oh, there were turkey hats, Native American headdresses, even a Rudy costume (WTH?).  There was also an official Mr. Turkey himself.  Check it out.

 

I know what you're thinking.  It's a pretty creepy-looking Mr. Turkey.  I have to agree.  And I'll tell you who else would agree with you -- my son, Seamus Fionn Crimmins.  Oh, he had such a complex relationship with Mr. Turkey before the race.  He was scared of him, but he was also drawn to him.  What's a kid to do?  It was such a classic case of approach-avoidance.  "Mama, I need see turkey!" he would demand, craning his head to catch a glimpse.  So off to find Mr. Turkey we would go.  Upon finding him, I would suggest taking a picture with Mr. Turkey.  "Nooooooooooo!" Fionn would scream hysterically as if I'd just ask him to take a bath in acid.  Fionn was content to look at Mr. Turkey from a safe distance.  A fly-on-the-wall sort of mentality, if you will.

However, after the race, he seemed to warm up to Mr. Turkey a bit.  Or perhaps we just dealt such a surprise attack in terms of a picture-taking opportunity, he didn't have time to protest.  He does look a little baffled in the picture, doesn't he?  Ah well.  It's all in the name of preserving memories, right?  Turkey PTSD is a small price to pay...right?  

No, let me ease your mind.  Our son has no long-standing issues with turkeys.  At least, not so much that he couldn't chow down heartily at Thanksgiving.  But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

Once we returned home from the race, we showered and changed.  Prepped the turkey.  Then we headed next door to celebrate the birthday of our neighbor, Isabella Wirth, who was turning 9.  We have the most amazing neighbors, as I am quite sure I have mentioned more than once, and it was very special to kick off our holiday with them.  We also laid a nice foundation of sheet cake in our stomachs -- ah, preparation for the debauchery that was to come.  

Speaking of preparation, we had a few final details to put into place before our guests arrived.  The turkey had to go into the oven, the crystal had to be placed on the table, and the chalkboard had to be updated to reflect the appropriate holiday (I think it was still a "Happy Birthday" sign for me from July).  Here's a pic of my ultra-talented husband, putting his Student Government poster-making skills to work on our chalkboard.

Should I feel like less of a woman because my husband is better at drawing a turkey with chalk than me?  Meh.  I have other talents...right? 

Around 2 pm, we were joined by two of our dearest friends -- Corrie and Eric Mack.  You might remember them from our camping adventure.  Here they are again, these sweet folks, willing to share their holiday with our crazy little threesome. 

Having Corrie and Eric present at Thanksgiving was the next best thing to family.  Having known Corrie for (gasp!) 17 years, she is like a sister to me at this point.  I feel completely comfortable with her and loved unconditionally which is a wonderful feeling.  And her husband Eric is quickly becoming one of my favorite people too.  They are both such wonderful people -- fun and kind and easy to be around.  Wonderful with Fionny.  Oh, we just had a helluva nice day.

Fionn, for his part, was very excited to awake from his nap to find Corrie and Eric hanging out in his living room.  He was especially eager to show them the cute-but-kinda-ugly turkey placeholders we made earlier in the week.

If you like it, I made it.  If not, it was all Mama.

Sigh.  I know.  Martha Stewart would cringe if she saw them.  Besides being sort of pathetic-looking, they were also incredibly fragile and fell apart almost immediately upon touch.  (Turns out glue sticks don't work so well on pine cones.)  A craft-master I am not.  But I'm trying.  And Fionn and I had a blast making them.  That's all that matters, right? 

And, from a distance, they looked pretty good.  Here's a pic of the table before we started to load it up with food.

The food...ah, the food.  I am happy to report that the food was absolutely delicious.  Conor knocked it out of the park with his turkey.  Check this beauty out!

We ate and ate and ate some more.  As one does.  It was fabulous.  And bloat-inducing.  I definitely rolled my way into bed that night.  And still felt full the next morning (which didn't stop me from eating sweet potatoes for lunch, mind you).

Ah, what a great holiday.  The best part was that all day we had the fabulous anticipation of knowing that we had an ultrasound the next day which would tell us the gender of our second baby.  Now don't get too excited.  We don't know yet.  But the information is stashed away in an envelope, just waiting for the right moment.  This moment, we'll have you know, will be this coming Wednesday evening when we slice into yet another gender cake in celebration of Fionn's official half-birthday.

The envelope, by the way, is just staring at me from its place on the fridge.  Oh, it's so hard not to just tear into it...but then again, the anticipation is just much too fun to disturb. 

What lies within?

The baby, by the way, was looking great.  And huge apparently.  They estimated that he/she is already weighing in at 7 ounces which is twice the size that my pregnancy book predicts a fetus will be at this stage.  Gulp.  But they assured us that we are still within the range of normal.  Just big-normal.  Grrr-reat.

All kidding aside, it was the perfect Thanksgiving treat to sneak a peek at our little guy or girl.  Seeing the movements of his/her hands and the beating of his/her little heart...it just never gets old.  We are so thankful for this child.  So very, very thankful. 

With a wonderful Thanksgiving behind us, we are now moving on to Christmas with gusto.  Can I brag and report that our lights and garlands are already up, and our tree will come up at some point today?  I am really quite flabbergasted that we mustered up such motivation this soon after Thanksgiving.  I mean, really, who are these people, and what did they do with Conor and Casey?

Haha!  I will follow up shortly with pictures of our decorations once they are complete.  And, of course, we'll update the blog on Wednesday with the contents of our special envelope.  Until then...