Thanksgiving

I know that I am behind in doing this, but did not want to let the holiday go by with out acknowledging it. Since last thanksgiving I have had a lot to work through. It was a very long year of first that I will be honest were not easy, but I made it. It also was a year of loss for me and my family. We lost my Grandmother, cousin and a friend. They are all remembered fondly. Now on to the good. This year we had a wonderful family gathering at Edna's wedding. What a blast. We are blessed to have Edna and Fred back home in New York now. Luke and I are blessed with Ella and all of her fun. He have a home to live in and food on the table and clothes on our backs. Luke and I have a love for each other that will never die. We have great family and friends who we love deeply. All in all we have so much to be thankful for. We do not always see it so it is nice to take a moment to remind ourselves of this every once in awhile.

More updates

Well here is the next installment of updates. Ella went to see Santa arrive at the mall a few weeks ago. Now every year we have gone to see Santa and every year it does not go so well. Here is this years attempt.

We also spent a day at the Strong National Museum of Play. They had a very large Bob the Builder exhibit there. We went with Grandma Fran, Auntie Edna, and Uncle Fred.

When Ella got a chance to meet Bob she did not want to go neat him. They had a sing and dance along party with him. Everyone got to dress up and sing and dance. Well Ella got all dressed up and they right up front with to sing, and that is all she did stand. She would not sing or dance.

Of course there was a train ride with Uncle Freddy.

Now on the Thanksgiving. Ella had a feast at school and Luke and I were able to join her. It was fun. Of course she did not eat hardly any of the food.

Then Ella got a belated birthday gift. I will not reveal the sender. HA HA

The pictures explains it all.

Also Daddy had to try the wig on.

We also have a house guest for the Holidays. His name is Dukie. He is one of Santa's elves. Dukie is here to watch Ella and then report back to Santa. We can not touch Dukie or his magic will go away. Every night after Ella goes to bed, Dukie flies to the North Pole and reports to Santa how she was for the day and then he comes back each night. Every night he hides in a new spot and Ella has to find him in the morning. Dukie can not talk to us, but we can talk to him and he will tell Santa our wishes. So welcome to our home Dukie.

Major catch up

So I have been very slow at updating my blog. I have no excuses for it except that, well we are all tired. So sit down with a cup of something and get ready for the wild ride.

I took a Wilton cake decorating class this fall. It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. Here are the pictures of my cake is succession. They are well you are always hardest on yourself.

Now on to Halloween. Of course there is decorating to be done. This includes playing in the leaves.

We had to rake up a lot of leaves. Let me tell you. We started off with just enough to do the spider and pumpkins and then a few weeks later we did the rest. A total of about 20 bags. The best part of all is that we do not have a tree on our property. Gotta love that.

The pumpkins were a lot of fun. Uncle Howard grew a very large 100lbs. pumpkin for Ella. Ella was not a fan of the pumpkin guts. She had to use a spoon and wear a rubber glove.

Ella choose to be a purple witch who was good. She was very excited about it. The make up did not last very long. We only wore it to one party and the rest of them we went with out it. She went to a parade at the mall, a party at the YMCA, her party at school, and then trick or treating on Halloween. We certainly did get our use out of the costume.

And of course this is Central New York so we now head right into the first snow. Ella came running into our room telling us that it had "snowded" She had to go right out side. As Luke and I are getting her coat and hat and boots, we turn around to find her taking her pjs off and putting on her outer wear. She knew we were not suppose to wear a pjs outside so she was taking them off. We had her put them back on and out we went you can not see the snow but it was falling.

Ella received a gift from a friend of mine at Wegmans. He recently lost his wife to Lung cancer also. He gave Ella a dancing Santa and Mrs. Claus. She loves to dance to the music also. And no one is to be left out anyone who comes into the house has to dance to the music.

Well I think that is enough for now. I will try to be better.

Things are not always as they seem

Before I start this post I want everyone to know that part of why I started this blog was to be able to have a place to vent to, here is one of those posts.

Yesterday was quite an eye opening day for me. I have come to realize that there are few people in my life that I can count on to be honest and have that unconditional relationship with. Friendship and family to me means that even when you do not want to do something for someone or deal with someone else's issues you do, because you love and care for them. You may have to go out of your way to be with them or you may need to do something that feels a little uncomfortable, but you do it so that you can support that person. It may mean giving up something that means a lot to you not just physical things, but emotional things also. Maybe it is just that time of month for me, but yesterday there were a few things that showed me I have been fooled. I have sacrificed a lot of time and energy into this people and they just choose to do things over and over again that show me they really do not care as much about me.

With saying all of this those people mean so much to me that I will continue to be there for them and do all that I can and make sacrifices for them. I do this because I truly do care for them.

I just need an outlet for these feelings and this seemed like the best place for them. It is not fair to Luke who does show me that unconditional relationship that I talked about to always have to hear the venting and deal with me. Luke and Ella are truly the examples of unconditional relationships to me.