Whoooops!

Hi. It's Thanksgiving. I was aimlessly tumbling and thought ohhh shoot it's Thursday. I didn't know if we were exempt from a blog this week (figuring not) so I thought I'd talk about Thanksgiving.  Even though I have to work throughout the weekend and have to deal with the insanity of my home this weekend, I always really look forward to Thanksgiving.  My eager attitude usually goes away relatively quickly with changing events at home but I can still appreciate the underlying themes of the weekend.  My family is rather untraditional when it comes to Thanksgiving, the meal really isn't that important even though we do it pretty well.  Thanksgiving weekend is meant to prepare for Christmas in the O'Dowd household.  My mother is OBSESSED with Christmas and every year our home is transformed, and this is no easy task. We go so over the top that we were published in a local magazine which my parents proudly show off even 10 years later. I love Christmas at home.  I have a different appreciation of it as an adult and sometimes become quite intimidate by the fact that I will have the pressure of recreating this wonderland someday if (god forbid) my mother is unable to do it.  We have 3 trees, hundreds of stuffed animals and nutcrackers, any important decoration known to man and a partridge in a pear tree.  SO MUCH! There are people close to us who love to appreciate the end result but don't really like to make it happen.  Considering that my sister doesn't have the ability to do this work on her own and my brother cares little, alot of the pressure to help and carry on the tradition falls on me.  But I love it so much that I am absolutely willing to do it.  I hope that someday my children have the warm and vivid Christmas memories that I am blessed with.  Thursday is Turkey Day, Friday is militant decorating, eating and SHOPPING (Who do you think I am to forget Black Friday?) and then the rest of the weekend is relatively normal and relaxed.  I used to think that many of my mother's OCD like cares were mantissas, I just wanted the tree to be up and enjoy it without doing the work.  I have learned that in order to truly appreciate the benefits of Christmas, I must be apart of the work.  and I like the bragging rights :).  More than ever this year I need Winter break to come.  This semester has taken everything out of me and I need to refuel before starting next semester with the force that I'd like.  I have been blessed with two amazing vacations this winter and I have an appetence for both! Mexico and the Bahamas all in one month?? I feel like I've won the lottery.  My feelings about my life and family go through a roller coaster everyday but this winter I wouldn't rather be anywhere else.

Mantissa- An addition of little importance.
Appetence- Intense desire