Four Christmas's...Christmas'...Four Christmi...More Than One Christmas

Ahhh yes, the joyous occation of divvying up holidays between TWO sets of divorced parents and FOUR households, not to mention the EIGHT extended families...

Holidays have been complicated in my family since my parents got divorced when I was 8. I always had two of everything, including trips to visit extended family for holidays (Mississippi for my dad and all over Missouri for my mom). But it was really all I ever knew, so I got pretty used to it. However, getting married to another child of divorce has begun to really shake things up. If you've seen the movie Four Christmases it's not that far off.

Here's the schedule so far:

We will probably be seeing three of the four extended families in the week/weekend before Christmas, then comes the real schenanigans...

Night of the 22rd/day of the 23th (BENTONVILLE, AR): His Mom and Stepdad
Night of the 23rd/morning of the 24th (ROGERS, AR): My Dad
Lunch/Afternoon/Evening of the 24th (FAYETTEVILLE, AR): His Dad and Stepmom
Late Evening of the 24th/day of 25th (LAMAR, MO): My Mom

And I guess somewhere in there we will have our own little Christmas with Bosco? All I know is that by the time we get to the 26th I will probably be so sick of holiday traveling and living out of a suitcase that my tree will be coming down and all my decorations will be put away...

But four times the families means four times the love, so I can't complain too much :)

A Shopping We Will Go

It's that time of year again, Thanksgiving shopping trip with "Mother" aka, Garland's mom (the boys never really warmed up to the term "mom").  If you've ever heard stories from time spent with Garland's family, you know that this will be an adventure. Details about this trip:
1) Mother and John (step father) take us all (both sons and their corresponding significant others) to go shopping each year as a Thanksgiving tradition. And to answer your question, no, this is not for Christmas. Christmas is separate, this is just something I lucked into when I married Garland.
2) This year we are going to the Kansas City Plaza and it's going to be a whole weekend extravaganza (Friday through Sunday).
3) The first stop on the journey is to eat at Mother's favorite restaurant in Missouri, which is technically a garden megastore that just so happens to make soup and sell really fancy plates.
4) Friday night will be dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and I am so excited!
5) Mother issues a spending minimum. This means that Garland and Garrett (younger Autry brother) will be forced to actually buy more than socks and undershirts (Garland tries to pass those items off as his entire "shopping" list every year).
6) Saturday morning will begin shopping-palooza, and my first stop will be ANTHROPOLOGY (sigh). Love at first shop.
7) Thanksgiving extravaganza weekend will take a momentary break on Saturday night for the Razorback game at 6, and this will determine the enjoyment of the rest of the weekend. While Mother, Libster (Garrett's girlfriend), and I go see a movie, the boys will yell and scream at the tv and (hopefully) be happy with the outcome, otherwise we are all going to have to endure pouty lips and poor attitudes for the rest of the night.
8) Sunday is the last day, and there is no telling what Mother has up her sleeve.
9) We will head back to Arkansas in our two cars (Mother insists on driving two so they boys can be in different cars. This way, if there were an accident, she would at least have one surviving son...).
10) I am very much looking forward to this! Craziness will ensue, but spending time with the in-laws is always entertaining and fun.

No word yet if there will be any Christmas outfits purchased for Maynard (Mother's prized cat). Wish me luck!

Ten Things

Thing 1) Barn Bash was this past weekend and I have never seen so much flannel in one place. Courtney Matthews looked like a mix between a pirate and a homeless man.

Thing 2) I am desperately craving anything that includes chocolate and peanut butter, be it an Andy's concrete or just straight up, delicious Reece's Peanut Butter Cups.

Thing 3) I am trying very hard (even as I type this) to not hum, sing, mouth trumpet, or listen to Christmas music of any kind, for fear that I would get sick of it before Christmas. However, I am desperately wanting to hear some Ben Rector Christmas music (confession: I listened to it in the shower last night. I am weak).

Thing 4) I am so sick of watching football. I would be completely happy if no more football games were played until next August.

Thing 5) I love the current weather, but I can't seem to figure out if I need to be wearing my light jacket or my heavy jacket or just a sweater. No matter what I chose, I fail and end up sweating or freezing all day/night.

Thing 6) Garland's family has what I call the "Autry Itch," which is not a communicable disease as it sounds, but rather a disorder in which they get the itch to change something much faster than a regular person (ex. paint/redecorate, get a new dog, buy a new house, etc.). The statement I said eariler about it not being a communicable disease was maybe a half truth because I'm pretty sure I've caught it. I want to buy a new house and fix it up all over again!

Thing 7) I hate insurance. Doctor's are so expensive. Insurance covers basically nothing.

Thing 8) Garland cut Bosco's nails last night and Bosco yanked away on the last one causing Garland to cut a little too deep, which lead to Bosco bleeding and although it was only a tiny baby cut, because he kept running and jumping it looked like we gutted a dear on the back porch.

Thing 9) I am coming to realize that Garland and I have a real problem not having people over. If we are sitting at home and no one is there I'm always wondering, "Where is everybody? Why is everyone so busy?" This leads me to believe that we may be the worst empty nesters that ever existed. I may end up with like 12043213 pets.

Thing 10) It's only Monday (sigh). Here comes the rest of the week.