Christmas Compromise?

I dislike how merely mentioning Christmas plans to Joe and our families creates stress. I really love Christmas in Omaha with both sides of our family. I always go into planning our trip with a positive attitude and lots of excitement....until discussion starts.... and then I wish I didn't have to deal with it at all. I know it seems early to plan for Christmas, but Joe had to request time off work today so I have been trying to roughly figure out our trip to Omaha and which important days (Christmas and Christmas Eve) we will spend with each side of the family. 

I wish it was easy to balance it all. I wish it was easy to see everyone equally, but it never works out that way. If we lived in Omaha, it would be much easier, but we don't.

Me and Joe are just in that awkward place (and have been our whole married life) where we don't have kids yet, so we can't justify doing our own thing and we are expected to participate in all of the same traditions both of our families had when we were little kids. At what point do we tell our families that we will just make it to one or the other, not both?

I feel like it's so hard to juggle and I hate asking other people to adjust their holiday schedules and plans for us. It's so hard not to feel bad...and the worst part is, I am always the bad guy. I hate being the bad guy. I think the reason its so hard is because Joe and I are the only ones who are married in both of our immediate families. Maybe once we add more girlfriends/boyfriends/spouses to the mix everyone will have to relax a little bit and they'll realize that it's too hard to do everything the same way it has been done since we were little kids. We all have to give and take a little. I hope things will adapt and change as our family grows and expands.

The hardest part is trying to please everyone without feeling like someone is upset or one side is getting the short end of the stick. Since I have a small family, our family gatherings are simple and may seem less important to Joe and his family because he has a big family and they have large family gatherings. I love his family gatherings a lot, they are so fun and I look forward to them every year.  At the same time, I have to remember to try to give my family some time...and that's hard.  All I want is for the time spent to be equal, or as equal as it can be.

Ultimately, I want both of us, together as a couple, to spend time with each side of our family. I refuse to let us go our separate ways to spend time with "my" family. That is not the answer. As far as I am concerned, both of our families are "my family".  Marriage is about compromise and sometimes that is a tough thing for people to swallow.

Ugh... OK, I'm done. Venting session complete.

Fall

I don't really have much to write about. I am sitting at work in the computer lab and its pretty slow so I am so bored and need to fill my time.

It's a super warm nice day today, which is weird for almost November. Soon enough it will be cold and snowy, so this is a welcome treat. One last hurrah before winter starts....

I am glad it's Fall, and I'm glad we've had such a nice Fall so far. I love the bright colors of the leaves on the trees in Chicago. I love walking home from the train and walking the dogs in the park during the perfect not to cold, not to hot weather. I love the way the leaves fill the sidewalks with color. I can't believe its already (almost) November, it makes me think about how another year has flown by. Time really does fly and I think it's going faster and faster the older I get. yikes.

I am excited for the holidays. Even though we wont get back to Omaha to see family for Thanksgiving, we will go for Christmas, as we usually do. I really love November and December in Chicago, the lights the holiday hustle and bustle, its so fun.

Larry Gets Lost in Chicago

Cathy was in Chicago visiting us this past weekend. We had a lot of fun... I will post some pics when she sends them to me...we mostly used her camera all weekend.

Yesterday, while we were out browsing I found the cutest book ever in a fun toy store in Lincoln Square. The book is called "Larry Gets Lost in Chicago".  I just love children's books, and don't even get me started on children's books about Chicago! This book was SO cute I almost bought it. 

I can't wait until we have kids and I can read stories to them. I picture a big book shelf, full of cute little books to read to them before I tuck them in.

STITCH 2010

This year I participated in a fun industry event called, STITCH. Myself and 6 other Harrington Alumni worked together to create an awesome entry for this years show. We were asked really late in the game by Kimball Office, an office furniture company if they could sponsor a team of alumni for this event. We accepted the challenge and met multiple times in only a couple weeks to conceptualize, design, and finally sew and create the dress. It was SO much fun. We had a great team! Our dress came out SOOO neat and our makeup and hair concept was just perfect. We got so many compliments on our entry, ours was clearly one of the most well-made and interesting garments on the runway. We found out later that we were only ONE point away from winning the coveted "Best in Show" Award. Oh well! We knew who the real winner was! Ours was AWESOME!

Here's the scoop on the event...
STITCH is IIDA-Illinois' biggest event that pairs Chicago's most talented Designers with industry manufacturers to create one-of a kind, wearable garments for the runway show of the year. The theme this year was "A STITCH in Time: Design for a Decade." So the idea was to take any time period or decade and create a conceptual (not literal) interpretation of anything from that decade or representing the entire decade.
The Harrington Alumni team created a wearable garment for our model out of Kimball Office's exclusive Maharam fabric.

Our official concept was:
Victorian Illusion. Inspired by illusion, transformation, and 1880's Victorian style.
Magic makes something out of nothing -- it transforms,
Transformation is mysterious -- or is it simply an illusion?

More about our design... Victorian fashion was characterized by large collars and bustles, corsets, tiny waists, and the use of birds and feathers in their hats and hair accessories. Magic was also experiencing its "golden age" due to the advancements in technology. many magicians created the illusion of pulling things out of their top hats or making birds disappear. Our model, Enza, emerged from a large magicians top hat (which we also created), she revealed herself by pulling the hat down. She emeged....a modern version of a Victorian "bird", complete with feathers in the hair, on her eyelashes, and feather-like pieces of fabric on the skirt of her dress. She walked to the song, "I Can Transform Ya" by Chris Brown

Here is the video that I made out of all the photos and video that myself and everyone else took. It was SOOOO fun!  You can watch it here (small) or click the link below to watch it large! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sul5f3qAnY Turn up your speakers and watch in 480p for best quality!!

Catch Up

I don't know why I've been so bad about writing lately. Anyway, time for a quick post to catch up...

On August 4th I saw President Obama, live and in person! Well...for a split second anyway :-)
I was coming out of my Turbo Kick class and I saw a whole fleet of black Suburbans and cops down the street.  I watched the news before I left for class and saw coverage of Obama getting off of Air Force One for his Birthday visit to Chicago. He was also in town to support a local senator, etc.

Anyway, I put two and two together and realized he was probably having dinner at the restaurant down the street (Graham Elliot, a very expensive, modern restaurant in River North). I walked over to the small crowd of people to check it out. I saw secret service everywhere, so I decided to wait. Not sure if he was just getting there, or if he was about to come out, but I waited....and waited......aaaaaand waited.  Until nearly 11pm!!  For 3 and a half hours I stood there with a growing crowd of people, behind a police line, in my sweaty gym clothes,... waiting. I watched secret service and Chicago police get in and out of their cars, I watched people going in and out of the restaurant (they were searched and wanded before going in). I watched the secret service people eat Subway and also watched them yell at people for pushing on the police line. Later on, they even ended up wanding the crowd with metal detectors as it got closer to the time he was going to come out. The news crews were there and everything. It was cool.

People came and went, a mom and her boys from out of town waited near me for a couple hours before finally giving up because the kids were so bored and tired of waiting.

Finally at about 11pm, they backed up one of the suburbans right up to the sidewalk in front of the door to the restaurant and people started coming out. We were kept so far back it was hard to make out who was coming out, but the photographers were flashing, so we new it was someone good. Finally, Obama came out, I saw him and the whole crowd started cheering... he turned toward the crowd, gave a quick smile and wave and got into the car.

The secret service hopped in the other cars and there went the big motorcade, out of sight in about 1 minute flat. Here is the photo of what I saw that was in the Huffington Post the next day... YAY!

Later, I found out that he had dinner with Oprah and a few other people, so that must have been one of the people who walked out before him when the photogs were going crazy! :-) 

Anyway, it was fun and I am glad I waited!

Here are some of my crappy phone photos from when I was waiting.

         

Here is the link to the full article with photos from his visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/05/obama-in-chicago-friends_n_671678.html#s123197