Thanksgiving. Again.

Tomorrow is the big day. Thanksgiving. Love the food, hate the awkward. And with my family, there is always a lot of awkward to be had. I'm sure that I'm not alone in that, I'm sure you guys also have your share of awkward family time. 

I think that's just family though. Cram a bunch of people that are only connected by blood or marriage together into a house once a year when you spend the rest of the year actively avoiding each other and it's sure to be awkward. It's hard to avoid everyone all at once unless you lock yourself into a far removed closet. Which actually, my cousin Gary did that every year while I was growing up, he'd hide in a bedroom.

Now though, since I'm married, we've had to incorporate the husband's family and mine together. Both of our families are weird, but in totally different ways. His parents are in their 60s, upper middle class, straight up Leave It To Beaver types. My parents are in their 50s, they came of age in the very stoned 70s and are pretty spacey and boozy.

Husband's family

My famly

For years growing up Thanksgiving was always at my great-aunts house with everyone piling up there. Now she has passed away, her daughter and my grandmother still live there, and we still carried on with the family gatherings for a bit after my aunt passed away. Then a few things happened pretty much all at once (well, it was over the span of a year, but since we never see each other.... you got me) my cousin that owned the traditional gathering home started feuding passively with my mother's brother (fuck him, I don't call him my uncle), I got separated from my husband and my mother's brother started harassing me about being separated and not sticking with my marriage just because I was "bored" as he said and I jumped all over his ass, my mother's brother's wife refused to come to any more family functions. Then the husband and I got back together and my mother's brother tried to start more shit the next year, my cousin was still feuding with him, suddenly my cousin couldn't get off work for the holiday anymore, blah blah life happened.

Long story short now we're gathering with my husbands family minus my mother's brother and his family.

Smoosh Cake Disaster 2013. Then a catch up.

Noelle just turned one on November 6th! To celebrate her going from this tiny helpless little creature:

To this adorable little girl who is an absolute ham for attention:

we threw her a birthday bash! Complete with a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, ham, stuffing, all the works) with all of her most adoring of fans crowded around her to celebrate!

Seriously, she loves being the center of attention.

The decorations were fall festive and a strung up and sitting about, it was perfect. The food was all ready and hot and delicious. The company was all great. The mingling was good, the chatter was happy. Bellies were full, guests were eagerly awaiting dessert. No one was more eager for cake than Noelle. 

You see, during the past year I have severely limited Noelle's intake of sugar. She has only had nibble of cake and cookies. This was hard to maintain since I bake tons of treats all the time. I wanted to make her first birthday special for her. I wanted to make sure her smoosh cake, that all kids get on their first birthday, was her first in-depth foray into cake.

So I planned for weeks her cake. I wanted to make sure it wasn't just a chocolate or vanilla cake. Let other kids have that simple confection. My little girl has a mother that bakes delicious treats. I was determined she would have something unique and delicious. Something she could look back on decades from now and think "Hell yes mom. Hell yes".

I decided on a pumpkin cake with a cinnamon Swiss buttercream frosting. Yeah, take a second and let it sink in. Pumpkin. Cinnamon. Swiss. Buttercream. Amazing. Yeah, I know.

So I had her little cake and the matching larger cake for the rest of the guests. I had baked the cake layers on Thursday so that I could make the frosting and frost it Friday in a relaxed time and not be rushed. It so never works out. I was running all around on Friday and didn't get around to making the frosting until late Friday night. I frosted the cakes, was unhappy, scraped it off, frosted it again, was unhappy, scraped it off, frosted it again and this went on and on.

Finally I was exhausted and decided they looked as good as they would get. I went to take my friend who had been keeping me company home and when I got home I saw that my husband had tried some of the sampler cake (I had extra batter and frosting so made a tiny cake on the side for him). I value his opinion so this conversation happened:

Me: What did you think of the cake?

Tom:....*pause*....it was... buttery.

Me: Fuck. Now I have to redo it all in the morning.

You see, I am my biggest critic. Tom is my biggest fan and he always loves everything I make, so for him to PAUSE and then say it was buttery I knew it was all fucked up. I had tried a new frosting recipe. I'd never made it before and it did call for 3 pounds of butter. I knew it was buttery, but I figured with the cake it would tone it down and compliment each other. So I went to bed positive that I had to rebake the cake the next morning. 

I was hell bent on remaking them. I woke up with a mission. My aunt, who was in from Georgia and staying with me refused to allow it. She convinced me, along with my husband that the cake was delicious and it was all going to be amazing, and I was being crazy. My husband said it was his fault, he shouldn't have paused, and blah blah blah I didn't rebake the cakes.

Cut to the party that night. Know that I have been working on the cakes since Thursday and didn't sleep any the night before because of the cakes. Now read this:

As Tom and I posed for pictures behind Noelle, who was adorable in her highchair waiting eagerly for the cake, I held the cake in front of her, just out of her reach. Then I felt the cake board begin to bend. Then this happened:

The cake fell off the cake board. Noelle instantly started screaming. 

If you need it from another angle:

Soak that in guys. The most important thing that happens at a first birthday party...went smoosh.

So then we picked it up off the floor and I tried real hard not to cry or cuss. 

Noelle got a smoosh slice of cake instead of her adorable little cake.

I just wasn't the same.

Smoosh cake, take two! *Please note Noelle wiping tears from her eyes and feel your heart melt a little.

Noelle seemed to enjoy the cake anyways. I almost had a total melt down, but Noelle handled it all in stride.

Apple Pies in a Jar- these were the favors I gave out at the party.

And now the catch up:

Man. I am terrible at posting this year. I'm going to try and be better from here on out, but I can't make any promises. The last thing I posted I was whining about being fired and whatnot. So to briefly touch on that, I'm still unemployed and have started saying I'm a stay at home mom, because it makes me feel better than just saying, "yeah, no one finds me employable and hasn't for the past 5 months". 

Saying I'm a stay at home mom sounds nurturing and stable. Brings to mind home grown veggies and hand made dresses, when actually it's a lot of building block towers and having Noelle knock them down and a lot of Gerber mashed foods for her and a lot of showering at 3:30 in the afternoon for me. Not really a Thomas Kinkade portrait.

I will say this though, I have loved watching Noelle go from crawling around to standing to walking and now to running around. I've been able to witness so many amazing achievements she has made and I wouldn't trade that for anything. These are things that I would have missed for the most part. Memories that I never would have made. So all the financial struggles and the emotional turmoil aside, this has been the best year of my life. 

Cruise: Bahamas Edition

As I mentioned previously, I just took a family cruise to the Bahamas. I was one of the lucky ones and my cruise was problem free. No Poop Cruise for me, for which I am extremely grateful.  The hubby and I were joined by my sister and my parents. It was a lot of fun, the part that wasn't fun was leaving my baby for a week. That was really hard. I literally cried every day I was gone. 

Noelle stayed with my grandmother and my cousin (who is really more like my aunt) and apparently she had a blast. When I finally got back to her, she just looked up at me like 'Oh, you guys again. Hey." She couldn't have cared less that we were gone or back. 

So I figured I'd show off some of the photos from the trip. First though, the most important picture:

I was so proud of my trophies. Two 24K gold plastic ships on a stick and a MEDAL.
I WIN.

The me and the sister.

We had just set sail, and already the husband was looking longingly at the land wishing he was back on it.
A 5 night cruise is a long time with my family.

Getting ready to go and explore Freeport.

The husband disagrees with my hats awesomeness.

We went to Senor Frogs. We drank. 

The sister got to order her first legal alcoholic beverage in a restaurant.

Mom got slightly wasted. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the  shots they insist you take. Man, Senor Frog's will get you chocolate wasted.

Yeah, we know. We're awesome.

This is how my husband wanders with us- distantly.

Yeah, husband threw out the devil horns. Because he's that guy.

There was a lot more that we did. There was a ton more that we saw. But this is the tip of the family fun iceberg. I will say, the staff/crew is amazing. I loved our steward and our main server at dinner.

If you're ever in Nassau definitely go to the Ardastra Gardens- don't do the $50 excursion. Take a cab most are $5 a person and then pay the $16. Make friends with your cab driver and he'll give you his number and you can call him to come back for you. If you're really lucky- you'll get a driver named Gibson. 

At the Ardastra Gardens they have marching flamingos- some of which were featured in National Geographic in the 1960's (they can live to be 70+). After their show, they wander the gardens with the PEACOCKS. THE GLORIOUS PEACOCKS. Like, you have to watch out our you may trip over them. It's really beautiful.

Bahamas Bound

If you're reading this, it means I'm sailing my way to the Bahamas on the Carnival Fun Ship Ecstasy. 

Do me a solid and cross your fingers that my ship stays more like this:

and less like 

More like this:

less like this:

More like this:

Less like this:

Things...

Things be happening ya'll.

Here's a list of what I have going on right now:

• Noelle has just gotten over her first cold. She was absolutely pitiful. Especially since it come on a just a few days after she broke out into a crazy rash her first day trying formula. It was a rough couple of weeks for her. 
• I've been back to work now like 20 days not including weekends. It took a good 6 work days to remember how to properly do my job. Two months is a long time to go without working and I'm not so good at retaining information.
• I've been thinking about Noelle's first birthday. It's on a Wednesday (yes in November, but I like to plan) and I can't decide if she should have her party that day evening or the weekend after. Should I take off work that day to cuddle her all day? My sister will be 20 this year and my mom still takes the ENTIRE WEEK off to be at home with her- even if my sister isn't home the whole time. In case she is home and wants to see my mother she's there ready for her. Lame. I mean, I'll totally probably do that too with my Nuggie, but whatever. 
• I have a birthday hovering over my head. It's happening in March. It's the big 3-0. Ugh. I'm torn between taking the entire week off and staying in bed and mourning the loss of my youth and saying "fuck it, a lot of people don't even make it to 30" and giving myself a spa day. You know what. I'm going to go with the second option. 

And now, the most exciting two things that I have coming up in the next few months:

1) A family cruise in May. The hubby and I will be joining my parents and sister for a delightful 5 night cruise to the Bahamas. Ridiculously excited!

Carnival Ship Ecstasy

The fact that when I just this moment Googled images of my ship this came up:

Carnival Ship Ecstasy fire 1998

...well... it worries me a bit. Here's hoping I don't die, guys. 

OMG. I don't even... SURE DEATH <--- article talking about the fire. 

My nice relaxing vacation may actually lead to my death. 

I can't think about that right now. I'll think about it tomorrow. 

2) TATE!!!!! 

The Airborne Toxic Event are going back on tour! This time they are even coming close to me. I've seen them twice, once in Charlotte and once in Washington, DC, both locales are 4+ hours away from me and require days off work and hotels and lots of gas and food money. THIS time, it's a mere hour and a half away. Pre-Sale tickets went on sale this morning at 10:00. By 10:02 I was the proud owner of 2 of those tickets. I don't know who all wants to go, but I ensured that I do have a ticket for myself should they sale out before everyone else makes a decision whether to go or not. 

I hope that video down there works- it works on my phone, but I can't check it on my work computer... If it doesn't work either YouTube them yourself or take my word for it. Amazing. No, actually, YouTube them. They'll speak for themselves.