Christmas Time Is Here

It's tough to be away from our family and friends during the holidays. Obviously we miss out on many family traditions and are beginning to create our own, but its the people that cannot be replaced.

For me, this has been a pretty tough December. Work has been non-stop, and I'm quickly burning out on the long hours and relentless workload. I am looking forward to spending some much-needed down time with Sam and Hunter in Northern California.

Sam, by contrast, is having a very slow season. He's working at Kaiser and they are pretty much closed for these next two weeks. He's been filling his time writing papers and taking care of the house, which I can't complain about. In fact, he's got a to do list to take care of before we leave town tomorrow when I get off.

We're really looking forward to having Carina and Justin home for the holidays. Justin will be around until Dec. 26 and Carina arrives on Dec. 27 so we'll be able to focus our undivided attention on each of them while they're in town.

On that note, I'd better put the finishing touches on my packing and get to bed - we have a very long day ahead of us tomorrow.

Christmas Eve Conundrum

Sam mentioned that he wanted to spend Christmas Eve with my parents since we'll be in Northern California over the holidays this year.

Obviously, I was thrilled by the thought of spending time with my family at the holidays.

Then Sam started getting concerned about the repercussions of spending the holidays with my family when it's our year to spend Christmas with Sam's side of the family.  And we'll have just spent Thanksgiving with my family in Irvine.

So far, my parents haven't said a word about me missing Christmas Day to be with the Galle family.  They have been really supportive of us making our plans and even told my mom's side of the family that unfortunately I won't be able to get together on Christmas Day despite that being the only definite day my cousin has off work.  My mom said she does hope to spend one day celebrating with us, but it doesn't matter to her which day that is.

Objectively, I don't think it's too terrible of us to split our time a little bit between the families since our parents still live just about 10 minutes apart.  I know if we were spending Christmas with my family in Moraga, I would want to make sure we saw Sam's family on Christmas Eve and I'm sure my parents would understand.

I guess we'll have to ride this out a little bit and see what happens over the next couple of weeks.

Our Officiant is Official!

One of the biggest things stressing me out about wedding planning was that we hadn't found an officiant.

Thankfully that ended on Tuesday night at Starbucks in San Juan Capistrano!

Sam had found a couple of additional officiants for us to interview on The Knot and Tom was quick to respond and easy to set up an appointment with.

We were really impressed with how professional Tom looked and how he carried himself.  He was pretty much exactly what we were looking for!

Tom's an elementary school principal, but he has been doing weddings on the side for 6 years starting when his cousin asked him to perform their ceremony on a family vacation in Mexico.  Tom pursued a career in marriage and family therapy before he went into education, which was an unexpected bonus because he definitely gave us a little mini counseling session and didn't seem preachy or judgmental.

He also shared a lot about his own family and assured us that it's totally normal for couples to struggle setting boundaries with parents and in-laws as they enter into marriage.  He told us that from his own personal experience he cannot impress upon us enough the importance of setting boundaries with our parents and families from the very beginning of our married life.

He reinforced the crappy truth that people's feelings are going to get hurt by us setting boundaries whether we do it now or we do it when we have our own kids.  He said there was so much unnecessary drama with his parents based on his own inability to set boundaries with them and it really hurt his wife and his relationship with his parents.

That totally hit home for Sam and I, because we have two AMAZING families that would love to spend every second with us.  Unfortunately, we haven't been able to master the fine art of being in two places at once, so we're trying to split our holidays and time between our families.

If it were just a matter of our parents and siblings, that would be less difficult, but we have three extended families to fit in as well.  Sam's mom's side of the family spends almost every holiday all together, which is a bit daunting for me because I worry about the expectations they will have for Sam and I.  My parents split holidays between my mom's family (grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) and my dad's family (grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins).  We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve with one side, Christmas Day and Easter with the other, and split up Mother's Day and Father's Day.

I think my family is prepared to have Sam and I MIA at family functions and holiday events now that they have to share me (more formally) with the Galles.  It's tough for me though, because I realize that I'm going to miss out on a lot.  We'll only be spending 50% of the holidays with my side of our family.  Of that 50%, probably 33% will be with the Santis, 33% with the Hunters and 33% with just my immediate family.

I am really, really excited about getting married, and I'm sure Sam and I are lucky to have been working on this whole family integration thing over the last 10+ years.  I just wish it was easier.

Rose Bowl Parade

Mom wanted lots of photos of the parade... especially of the flowers up close.  Here are some of my favorites from the 400+ photos taken New Year's Day!

Theme of the 2013 Rose Parade

Hawaiian Riders

Shriners Float (for Uncle Mark!)

Queen of the Roses and her court

Stanford Band- go Giants! 

B2 Bomber cruised the parade & the field before teh game

Organ Donation Float (for Denise!)

They got married during the parade!