Thankful

Happy New Year!  It's 2015 and we've transitioned from horses to sheep in the blink of an eye (even if Chinese New Year isn't officially until February.)

I have much too much catch up blogging to do so I won't call it that.  I'll hit the highlight reel of things I meant to write and move on.  No sense dwelling, right?

Thankful

Rhett and I had plenty of opportunity to reflect on the past year leading up to Tempest's first Thanksgiving.  Had things worked out differently - and thankfully they didn't - we were slated for a Day 6 transfer on Thanksgiving morning, 2013.  Our blastocysts simply weren't finished dividing their cells in time which is how we wound up with 7 frosties for a January 2014 transfer…and a hot mess of plummeting hormones on Thanksgiving day after stopping all injections.  That was a rough holiday and an anxious December spent waiting and waiting for January to just hurry up already.

This Thanksgiving was quiet and relaxing, despite an 11th hour oven malfunction that left us with two crockpots, the stove top, and the microwave to cook our feast.  It was staggering to think how far we'd come in just 365 days, staring at our amazing daughter who had learned to grasp a mini spatula just in time to "help out in the kitchen."

I will always cherish the time spent with my parents, just the six of us (including Oscar, of course), with nowhere to be but together.  We took Tess out on Black Friday just to get some fresh air and walk around Peddler's Village but that was it.  It was intimate and lovely.


Yuletide Progress

We'll begin with the mercifully shot-free 3 month well visit on December 19.  Tess measured in at 24 inches, 12 lbs 10 oz.  She is well on her way and making amazing leaps, including sporadic rolling over (about four times total now.)  I was not prepared for it happening this early but that's our daughter: she surprises us every day by displaying new skills she's kept secret from us.  She's only done it in front of an audience once but I'll leave the room for a moment and there she is, on her belly when I've put her down on her back.  Go figure.  She's a stealth tumbler. 

The very next morning, we loaded up the sleigh and pulled out at 5:30 AM to make it to Pittsburgh by lunch time.  The big family party was festive and overrun with exuberant children, and this year three new babies made their introductions.  Tess has two boy cousins, each three weeks apart, along with 7 older cousins whom she was finally introduced to amidst the merriment.

 Rowan (8/3), Emmett (8/29), Tempest (9/16)

I can imagine it must have been overwhelming for her to be held by so many people, big and small, but she coped fairly well.  It had been a long drive, after all, and I can't believe that she slept for more than 4 of the 6 hours, waking only to nurse (when we weren't parked at a rest stop, naturally.)

We spent an extra day at Gram's with most of the family coming back over for a Christmas open house.  I haven't seen my grandmother's home that full-to-the-brim since I was the youngest cousin running around, sneaking cookies.  It was a red letter day and I'm glad that we have those memories for Tess to cherish when she's older.

After braving the return trip on the turnpike, I started to feel that rundown oh, no...I'm getting sick feeling and sure enough, welcome Christmas cold.  This time, Tess and I got it together.  She was such a trooper to go to-ing and fro-ing with us for the next week-and-a-half, never once complaining, though the lack of sleep did catch up with her (and me) in the end.  The moment we got home, she fell asleep in her carrier and never woke up for her late-night meal.  She slept nearly 6 hours in her own crib that night.  Let the angels sing!

We spent a wonderfully foggy Christmas Eve in New Hope, followed by a Christmas morning that has set the bar so high, I shudder to think how we'll ever top it in the years to come.  After a delicious brunch, we headed to Haverford and spent Christmas night and Boxing Day among friends and family.  Oscar and Lily were shipped off to camp together and had the time of their lives, I'm sure, if their fatigue on the other side was any indicator.  I do wish Tess and I had been feeling our physical best but we made the most of our visits and the progress continued back to New Hope so we could all pile in the car at 3:15 AM to make our 4:03 Amtrak to Williamsburg, VA.

Well, that was an experience.  Nearly minus a Grandpap, who learned the hard way that the parking garage was closed at that hour, we just made the train.  It was no-frills regional rail but Business Class is the way to go for a 7 hour trip.  Leg room, proximity to restrooms and cafe car: so worth it. 

Tess became a professional traveler seemingly overnight.  She slept in her carrier until D.C. and then was as happy as could be with the rocking of the train and her freedom to nurse on demand.  Colonial Williamsburg is much as I remember it from 15 years ago.  It actually seemed bigger instead of smaller, as things do when you grow and they stay the same.  Perhaps it was because I am now a grown woman instead of a reluctant, be-costumed child, but I enjoyed the trip thoroughly.  Toting T around in her Ergobaby was a breeze and the taverns with their scrumptious seafood and fortified libations were appropriately festive.  It was wonderful to spend our third anniversary (and third year running) out of town seeing new sights.  Like my parents, we are fortunate to have a wedding date that straddles the holidays so we're never at a loss for activities.

Three days down Virginia way was perfect.  Though it would have been fun to stay through New Year's, I got my Fife and Drum fix, plus the weather had turned as frigid as it is now up north.  No, we most certainly did not stay up till Midnight on New Year's Eve, as we just arrived back at Haverford a little before 7 pm.  I barely made it through dinner but at an appropriate hour, I said my goodnights and Oscar, Tess and I passed out by 10:45.  Rhett joined us at 12:05, equally exhausted from our travels.

After a relaxing New Year's Day visit with the immediate family unit, we said our farewells to the California contingent, sad to see them go until the summer, and drove back to New Hope to meet Ken and Karen for lunch so they could meet the baby.  By 6:00 PM on January 2, home was calling.  Loudly.  Packing the sleigh to capacity, we drove off into the darkness, pleasantly surfeited on wassailing here and there for two weeks solid and so incredibly thankful to be heading home to sleep in our beds, safe and sound.

It was a blessed yuletide and one we will treasure forever -- even if we never attempt the same amount of travel in that brief time span again. 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and goodnight!