Thankful

Thanks to the demands of the cafe, jb hasn't had a vacation in over two years. It's pretty hard to get away, and when we do it's usually for family get togethers.

jb and I were planning to spend a couple of days joining my family at my Aunt Karen and Uncle Dave's home in Cincinatti (the first time in three years that my whole family would be there!). My family usually drives out on Thanksgiving day arriving just in time for an early dinner - so jb and I thought we could leave on the day before and get in our long overdue (if abbreviated) vacation. We found a great rate on a Hyatt Place room (probably because it was in the middle of nowhere) and knocked it down a few extra dollars with our Costco discount.

Granted, in an ideal world our vacation would last longer than 19 hours, but somehow it seemed just right. The two main things we wanted out of this mini-vacation were uninterrupted time together and rest - and I think we succeeded.

We arrived at the hotel at about 7 pm, checked in, got into pajamas, ordered room service, and settled onto the couch to watch TV (great episode of Criminal Minds!). It might seem lame, but honestly, it couldn't have been nicer.

We slept in the next morning (well, sleeping in for jb is anything past 6 am) and took advantage of the continental breakfast offered. Then jb drew me a bath and we took our time getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Once we were ready we called my family and they were still several hours away, so we called the front desk to request a late check-out and snuggled on the couch and read the paper.


Finally at two pm we had to call an end to our luxurious vacation. The good news is that we had Thanksgiving dinner and family time to look forward to. It was so nice to have the whole family together for Thanksgiving after my parents and the kids being in Mexico and Stephanie being in Korea for so long.


Dinner was amazing - of course there was turkey, corn, gravy, vegetables, and cranberry sauce - but the stand out every Thanksgiving is my Aunt Karen's filling. It's a Pennsyvania Dutch recipe handed down in her family that is a mixture of stuffing and mashed potatoes.



After dinner we settled in for a weekend of left-overs, pajamas, and general couch-potato-ing. jb had to head back on Friday night so she could be home to open the store on Saturday morning - but I think she got her fill of my family - ha.


Perhaps the most notable part of the holiday weekend is that jb and I annouced to the extended family that we are expecting to be parents in May. I'm 16.5 weeks pregnant and feeling great. The first few months were a little rough, but the nausea and exhaustion are quickly turning into a distant memory. jb and I are just thrilled - we've been wanting this for so long and can't wait to meet the little monkey. Of course right now we are just trying to enjoy each phase of pregnancy (even the less enjoyable ones) and make the most of our last few months as a couple (and puppy) only family.