About blogs

Hi blog readers!! (picture me waving here) Long time no see! Sorry about that. The holidays were crazy, I was felled by the flu.from.hell. (Seriously kids, get your flu shots, this thing is terrible) and I was not feeling terribly creative. But. The blog drought ends today!

Blogs are great.

And then your in-laws find them.

Thhehehee. But seriously kids.

So remember that earlier post 20 things about my husband and me? Remember how I wrote  "Large families freak me out.
   --- This wouldn't be an issue, except for the fact that my husband has a large extended family. Most of whom I'm meeting for the first time in oh...18 days. Yeah. Super fun. And when I say freak out, I mean my panic attacks trigger and you're liable to find me with my head between my knees taking deep breaths.*    ".

Well, my in-laws found this post, read it, and passed it around the family...before I'd met them.

Yeah. That was a fun moment of my face matching my hair (Rick, I'm looking at you!)

So I did what any self-respecting red head would do. Took a big gulp of wine and rolled with it. Because at that point, there's really not a whole lot else you can do.

As a side note: My in-laws are thoroughly delightful people who made me feel very welcome. And no, I'm not just saying that because there's a good chance they're reading this. We ate good food, drank good wine and laughed a lot. Which really, is the best kind of family gathering in my opinion.

Moral of this rambly story? While it's great to be honest on blogs, be sure that you're ok with anyone--family, friends or strangers--reading it and talking to you about it later.

Bye!

on traveling with a spouse

My family and I are super experts at road trips.  We started with pillows and radio surfing (...this was before iPods...) and now we don't need pillows, we don't taunt each other (much), and no one asks "How many more miiinuuuteess?"  Each winter we make a journey to a place to snowboard or ski, which means at least 12 hours of driving time each direction.  Most years, it's 16.  That's a lot of car time, folks.

This Christmas was the second time the hubz has come back to my hometown with me (the first was as a boyfriend -- THAT was exciting), and I think I feel qualified enough to share a few ideas for easier travel with the spouse.

1.  Travel in the same car. Honestly, it's good to be forced into close company.  It's good bonding, it's good family time, everyone gets a chance to rotate seats, and you get to know each other in a whole new way.  Mostly, it's just a good fun.  

2.  Maintain your caffeine and food schedules.  This seems silly, right?  Every person in my family has a caffeine habit. Coffee is considered the Nectar of the Gods at my parents' house.  When one person doesn't get their regular Nectar, things could get rather touchy rather quickly.  There is also such an emotion as "hangry."  Hungry + moodyfrombeinghungry = hangry.  Both you and spouse do better with regular food and regular legal addictive stimulants. So do siblings. Usually.

3.  Set aside together time. Without family. Just you two.  It's nice, trust me. Sitting in front of the tv having coffee counts.  So does shooting each other in Halo.  As long as it's time to be together without having to share.  

4.  Don't panic. You like each other. 

xoxo Susannah