I'm back!

I'm so glad I'm finally home! What a trip!
We had a doctors appointment for Bella last Tuesday, so we went, and she got four shots! Poor baby got a fever from the shots, so we were up all night monitering her, making sure it didn't get to high, and soothing her because she was very fussy. Then the next morning we left for Alabama. We left late, but figured that would be fine.
Then our battery died when we stopped for lunch. No problem, someone jumped us off, we'd go to an autozone when we got out of Atlanta. Then we got caught in traffic and our car overheated because my husband had unplugged the fan to balance it (or something, I don't speak car) and forgot to plug it in again. So we had to stop for awhile to let our car cool, and my husband had to plug in the fan.
Then we finally made it out of atlanta, and got to the autozone, where they tried to charge us $90 for a new battery, or "if you slip me a $20, I'll get you a used battery from the back." That's ok, it had enough of a charge on it to get where we were going.
Then we picked up two nails and got a flat tire. Thankfully we had a full spare, and someone stopped to help us. By now we are hour 5 into our 4 hour trip and only a little over halfway there.
The baby starts crying. So we stop again and we feed her and change her, and once she's happy, and we've calmed down a bit from all the craziness, we get going.
Bella cried when we got out of Birmingham, no problem, we stopped again and fed her, and changed her and got a bite to eat ourselves.
We hit a problem when we past Jasper at 11:00 at night and nothing was open and Bella was crying again. She still wasn't feeling that great, and she'd been in the car for hours, honestly I felt her pain, but there was nowhere to stop.
So we drove the rest of the way with a crying baby.
She was hoarse by the time we arrived at his grandmothers. I said a quick hello, then went to the back to feed her, and went to sleep. She was exausted, and I was exausted.
The next morning she got to meet her family, which was nice. People kept coming over and every other hour or so I'd have to slip off to feed the baby. It wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't for the fact that all of these people were just dropping in to say hi, and always when I had the baby in the back.
I actually didn't care. We'd met all the family I'd ever met by this point, and they were sticking around. These were great aunts, and second and third cousins, and people who if I haven't met in over three years of marriage on top of a year long engagement, and dating for three years, I don't figure will be too broken hearted if I don't cut feeding my baby off short every two minutes so whichever relative dropped by could say hi.
I didn't mind, my husband didn't mind, and my overwhelmed, tired and hungry baby didn't mind. The family minded.
Or maybe it was all in my head. I'd come out of the bedroom with a happy well fed baby and hear about all the people who came by while I was feeding the baby. Which I already knew because my door had been knocked on every time they dropped by.
Day two I was being asked if I would consider formula.
Hah! How much I would love to feed my baby formula. She used to get a bottle a day of formula, but recently she's decided she'd rather not bother with that stuff anymore when she can get it from the direct source.
His grandmother is sick. She keeps thinking she has ms, even though the doctor has said she has a slipped disk (which sounds incredibly painful when I think about what that means) and she's on a lot of pain meds, and has really high blood sugar, and all of this is compounded by the fact that she smokes and eats a lot of sugar. She was fine until about Saturday when the most people showed up, and then I think her nerves were frayed by all the company because she kept snapping at everyone, and got really upset when she was told she couldn't speak to her 3 year old great-grandaughter on the phone at 1:00 in the morning, and to please stop calling. Everyone was stressed, and the stress was stressing the baby.
I kept trying to go into town with my husband but he wasn't getting the hint that maybe we should give the family a bit of space for awhile. "No, you stay here, I'll run and grab whatever, it'll be faster without the baby."
*sigh*
Also I was hungry. I don't eat red meat. I used to not eat meat at all, but have had to eat fish and chicken just to have options while traveling, though I still don't care for it. I haven't eaten meat since I was 9, long before I met his family, but they never remember, and that would be fine if they didn't act insulted when I either bring my own food, or go get food out. Really? I get his grandmother not remembering, but even my mil forgets. Which when she forgets is fine, because she doesn't get upset when I walk in with a sandwhich instead of whatever was cooked.
I was excited to see my husbands aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents, and his parents and siblings. Both sides of his family live in the same town so it works out well.
Bella got a stocking, and toys and clothes, and we tracked santa with norad on christmas eve. We had a good time, and saturday we had a baby shower.
My real baby shower was in July while I was pregnant, but since his family couldn't drive the four hours to attend (I completely understand, four hours is a LONG drive, it sounds short, it does, like wow, just four hours, but really, it's a lot) they wanted to have another shower for me when I visited. It was sweet. So they made chips with sausage dip, and punch, and a few relatives showed up, and the baby acted adorable, and everyone was happy.
Except the relatives who couldn't come because they were busy, they told me to come by in January and they would throw me another shower.
I said thank you for the thought, but I think we're done traveling for awhile. Which was apparenly offensive.
I had a nice girls night with my mil, and my husbands cousin, and then we went home.
Praise the lord we are home! I'm visiting my fathers side of the family in February, and then I'm never traveling again. At least not until next thanksgiving.
I think that's what we're going to do. My family for thanksgiving, his family the week after Christmas , and if we can afford it a nice trip for us at some point inbetween (my fathers family lives in florida, so that can always count).
I say the week after Christmas because I want to have our own christmas as Bella gets older. This year we're celebraiting Christmas in January due to finances, but once she's old enough to know whats going on, I'd rather do Christmas with just us, and visit his family when stores and restaurants are less crazy, and everyone is less busy.
Thank God I'm home, I'm glad we went, I am, but thank god I'm home

Out of Town

Sorry for the non-updates, this has been a crazy week. Replies to all comments and new blog postings will continue next Wednesday, after we all get back in town. Thanks guys!

Progress?

Wednesday was sort of a rotten day, my husband and I went out to eat, and Bella decided to be fussy for the first time while we were out. I took her in the bathroom to feed her :S, and my food was cold by the end of that unpleasent experience. What a waste of money, we should have just ordered in, or gotten fast food. Then we went grocery shopping, came home, tended to the baby, and went to sleep.

My husband woke me up the next morning angry that I hadn't answered my phone because the apartment manager wanted to inspect our apartment for mold. I had a bit of a breakdown, and yelled at him about the dangers of waking up a nursing mother who got roughly five hours of sleep intermitently throughout the night not only to talk to her about the yucky apartment she already hates, but with anything other than a very pleasant voice and some form of a gift.

Seriously, make me breakfast, apologize profusely for waking me while thanking me for being such a great wife and mother, and slowly broach the potential deadly mold topic (all clear btw) with even more apologies about how we live here now instead of in our nice apartment in Atlanta so you don't have to commute anymore. Or better yet, pick up the damn phone yourself and make the arrangements.

I have to give the man credit. It only took a moment of me yelling near tears about how I was woken up every hour last night, and having just gotten back to sleep half an hour ago, and a lot of incoherent nonsense about apartment people calling after noon before he realized I either A. had a point, or B. he'd better pretend I had a point if he valued his life.

Then I enjoyed a day off of sorts. I watched chickflicks, and played with the baby while my husband cooked and cleaned. Then I got to work on my resolutions. I played with Bella most of the last two days. She's getting to the point where she tries to make conversation. It's not really baby talk yet, more like "aahs" of different lengths, but she smiles, and sticks her tongue out, and tries to pull off my glasses. It's adorable.

I also found a way to help her enjoy tummy time while curing diaper rash. Naked Tummy Time. She loves it. Everytime I change her diaper, I put her down on her tummy time mat before I put her new one on. She scoots along the mat, and then holds her head up looking into the mirror, and promptly rolls over and coos at the mirror as she kicks her little feet in the air.

She has no interest in toys still, but that's just fine. She's outgrown newborn clothing, which makes me a little sad, but I packed away a few sentimental outfits and put all the gender neutral clothing in a bag for my friends expecting a boy, and the girl clothes in a bag for my friends expecting a baby girl.

I fixed my husbands DVD player. It's one of those ginormous 400 disk changers, but it lost its memory of the dvd names on the move, so I sorted those while listening to my husband talk about drugs.

Did you know that antihistemines are related to allergy medications? It has something to do with beta blockers and h1 and 2 inhibitors, and there were words about the fight or flight reflex. I could be getting it all garbled, but the important thing is I did listen :)

Didn't do anything on the diet front yet. I'm keeping track of calories and logging what I eat so I'll know what a realistic goal is and what to cut. I'm drinking a lot of milk, 2% which still has lots of calories, but thats not something I want to cut back on while I'm still feeding the baby. I may be able to lose more weight by switching to say diet soda for all of my meals, instead of a cup a day, but the milk is better for me... so I'm going to have to figure out another place to cut. I'm thinking my first dieting step may be to reintroduce myself to water. *Hangs head* I hate water, but juice and milk and soda aren't as good for me... I got used to it while pregnant, I can do it again.

I've been trying to do a yoga routine every morning or night depending, just to try to get a little exercise it, but so far it's not turning out so well. I'll get started, and then Bella will cry. When it gets warmer I can go on walks with her, and incorporate her into my exercise program, but for now, I'm at least trying, and I get my baby lifts in :), so my arms should get stronger at least.

Appearence wise at the moment I'm making a point to shower and dress everyday. Not doing much with my hair other than pulling it back in a baby friendly braid, and not so much with the makeup. I'm working on it though. I will try to discover new baby friendly hair styles, and at least wear lipgloss or something.

I remember why I stopped cooking. I would cook, and sit down to eat, and then Bella would smell the food and get hungry (nevermind that I just fed her) so I would take care of her while my husband ate and then I would get a turn. So I'm not worrying about cooking until she gets the same meals. I make a crockpot meal everynow and then, maybe I should get more crockpot recipies and caserole recipies. Those can bake or sit for awhile. As for cleaning the house, dumping bleach on everything makes it sanitary, but I have googled additional cleaning techniques and will be trying those out one room at a time in the coming weeks. Coming next Week... how to clean a bathroom...

As for education I have submitted three applications for different graduate programs. A masters of creative writing program with an optional Phd program attatched once you finish the masters , an English education masters, and a computer programming masters.

The creative writing program is super competitive. I need to write a 15 page literary criticism, and submit 25 pages of creative work, and write a letter of intnent, with three letters of recomendation, have a 3.6 gpa, and a 1200 on my gre score with a 90th percentile in verbal. I am working on a paper about Peter Pan (more on that later) proofing my old creative stuff, and I have written a letter of intent. I made a 910 on my gre, and have a 3.4 gpa... so its sort of a long shot anyhow, but hey, may as well try.

The English Education program is promising, but I'd have to student teach in my second year, and I don't have anyone to watch Bella, plus I don't want to teach High School, so it's sort of a back up. But it's pretty competitive as well, though it only requires a 900 on the gre, and a 3.0, and a letter of intent with three letters of recomendation, so I may get in.

The computer programming is my safe bet. I don't have an undergrad in it, but the guy I spoke to said half the students don't, it just means an extra semester of computer classes to master some basics. It's all online, which is awesome, and would lend itself well to my future at home work, and leads right into goal nine, finding better work. I only need a 2.6 gpa, and a 900 on the gre.

I haven't decided what activity to pursue for my me time (must get to a point where I can exercise everyday first) but I'll keep you posted.

So I'm making progress. I'm proud of myself, and I'm excited about these new developments in Bella. I'm worried that she doesn't care about toys though, how old were your kids when they noticed toys?

Picture of the day, Bella's newborn photo, see how far she's come?

Resolutions

So it's not New Years yet, but I do have some resolutions related to my last post.

1) Bella- Bella is the most important person to me in the entire world. I will stop living for nap time. When she is awake, I will spend time with her, talking to her, reading to her, putting her down for tummy time and play time and I will not get frustrated when she cries

2) My husband- Equally important, just more independant. I will be less selfish, ask about his day, listen when he talks in great detail about chemistry things I don't understand, because he listens to me ramble on about everything I'm interested in. We will spend time together not zoned out in front of a television snacking on junk food.

4) my diet- I will cut out junk food, and watch what I'm eating. My diet still affects my baby, and I need to lose weight
5) exercising- I should do some of that... daily

6) My appearence- I need to rediscover make up, and clothes that are not pajamas. I may have a newborn, but that's no reason to let myself go. She's not colicky, and I am of the lucky few who has a baby that sleeps long hours. I should take advantage of that

7) Housewifing- ok, so I hate my apartment, and my kitchen, and even when I clean it looks cramped and ugly. I should have a little pride in my home, and for sanitary reasons should most likely bleach everything down at least once a day, because every surface here looks gross.... I should also cook more. I weighed less when I cooked more

8) Education- I'm done with useless classes. I have to stay in school until my husband finishes. (we cant afford loan payments yet, and I'd be lying if I said the financial aid money didn't make life a lot easier) I've applied for three different masters programs. I will either get a creative writing masters degree, with an option for a phd, an English masters of teaching degree, or a computer programming degree. I'll see which one accepts me, and figure out which one to pursue from there. If I'm in school for two more years, then the classes should be counting towards something.

9) Work- I don't like what I do now, and I barely make anything. I'm not quiting, but I hope to find something I can do at home that is more fulfilling, (like getting published maybe?) and if not, at least try to earn more so we can move to a less crappy apartment

10) Personal betterment- I will work on something constructive every day. Whether it is a few more pages of my stories, a painting, or reading a book, I will do something that is constructive and personal to me so I don't lose myself mommying.

Ok... time to get to work

What do you want to do?

It's such a loaded question. What do you want to do? I've always wanted to write fiction, but that's not exactly an easy task. First you have to finish a book, then you have to get it published.

I've finished a novel (when I was twelve) but I figure I should be able to read through it without blushing with embarresment at young me's attempts at writing. I've started lot's of books, but I "never have time" to do much beyond that.

Why not? I'm home all day? Why don't I write? I've come to a conclusion. I am lazy. I do nothing but sit on the couch all day unless something else has to be done.

One week after having my baby I was at my prepregnancy weight... now I've gained 8 pounds back. I'm the only person I know of who gained weight while breast feeding. (It doesn't help that breastfeeding makes me hungry all the time!)

My art education degree is going no where. The art classes are never in the afternoon, and I've always worked days, while my husband was in school, and now I'm home with the baby while my husbands in school, so I take filler classes instead. What a waste of tuition!

I thought I could be a good housewife, but that laziness thing. I'm not very good at cleaning... I can surface clean like a pro, but deep cleaning? I miss having a maid come once a week like when I was younger at my mom's house. I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to deep clean. It's sad when you're googling "how to clean a bathroom" but seriously? There has to be more to it then spraying everything with bleach and wiping it down. I mean the bathroom never looks clean anyway.

I never cook anymore. I used to at least make dinner every night, but that stopped when the baby came. Food is expensive! It's just easier to make peanut butter and jelly, and pasta, and cheap foods. Honestly, I could care less what I eat, as long as I'm getting everything I need for the baby, which I am, but my husbands getting a little sick of freezer dinners. (Why are they cheaper?)

So I'm not writing, I'm not doing much in school, and as a housewife I suck.

How am I doing as a mother? That's what should matter. Well last night I got frustrated and yelled at my baby because she wouldn't stop crying. I didn't yell words or anything, just a frustrated yell, similar sounding to hers. She didn't even notice. She was hungry, and I guess I was out of milk or something because she wouldn't take either breast, which is extremely frustrating, so I yelled "arg" and got up to make a bottle.

That's not the worst of it....

I put her down on the couch to go get her bottle, and not gently. Not roughly, I didn't throw her down or anything, but instead of being placed gently on the pillow she was set down forcefully, and rolled off the pillow, hitting the couch arm, and rolling back onto the pillow. The couch arm was cushioned, and I picked her up right away, frustration forgotten in worry, but she didn't seem to have even noticed.

I know she rolls over, or bumps her head into us sometimes with much more force than that little roll off the pillow, but I felt terrible. How dare I yell at a baby? How could I get frustrated enough to do something as dangerous as try to set her down on the couch even for a second? And how could I do it with enough force to make her roll? I mean I practically dropped her that inch instead of cradling her! Thank goodness she wasn't hurt.

She wouldn't take the bottle either (she's decided she doesn't like formula), so we just had to cry for a bit until I came through with more milk.

I have all these excuses. I'm tired, I don't have time, it's not convienient, but it boils down to the fact that I'm lazy. Today I felt sorry for myself, and watched a movie (Julie and Julia btw, great movie) tommorow I'm going to get into gear and start taking care of myself, my family, and my home better. It will be particularaly challenging, because my husband will be home for vacation, and I am not good at doing anything while he is home. I sit there, with him, and we do nothing except relax. He's earned it, he hasn't slept all week and has practically been living at the college of pharmacy for finals. I on the other hand have nothing to relax from.

I also need to think very carefully about this blog. It is a mommy blog, but I have nothing new to offer, just observations of a brand new, selfish and lazy mom who yelled at a baby for crying (Why did I DO that? She rarely cries, just some nights when she gets extra hungry) Of course I'll continue writing about that stuff, hopefully no more yelling, but I will continue to update on Bella, because I can't help but write about her, but I should have something more to offer. Something unique to me. My day to day life isn't all that interesting. After all, I sit on a couch and watch tv, and feed my baby every two hours. I work, but that takes up very very little time, and is extremely uninteresting. For now, I'm just going to continue writing about Bella, and my day to day life, but at some point I'm hoping to shift to some other theme which will include Bella and I, but have some sort of niche I fill. Like the cooking with Julie and Julia (perhaps I could go through cooking for dummies?).

Wednesday I will offer a complete list of my goals, and I am not going to let myself procrastinate any longer.

The picture above is my mom with Bella. I hope to look as good as she does one day :)

Routines

I never realized how reliant Bella was on routines. She's doing great now that we're home. Slept straight through the night her first night home and has been doing great ever since. She's not been especially fussy, she's just been herself. While we were on vacation though, it was an entirely different story.
She was up all night, she cried almost all the time, and she was just this strange baby. I felt bad because I bragged about how quiet she was.
I think she was overwhelmed. There were to many people, to much noise, and she was being passed around to much. I'm thrilled she got to meet everyone, but I'm sad that it stressed her out so much.
Later this month we're going to meet his family and the situation will repeat itself. Hopefully she'll be a bit better adjusted for this second trip, but if she's not is this fair? Should I be making her travel when it so clearly stresses her out? Or is this just selfish of us?

Jacob Black

I saw New Moon twice while on vacation. My mother wanted to see it, and my friend wanted to see what all of her students were talking about. Mostly my friend just made fun of it while she watched it, which was a lot of fun (don't worry, we whispered very quietly, so as not to upset other members of the audience... except for the part where one guy said he saw nothing in Bella's head... we had to laugh at that) however she did enjoy one aspect of the movie quite a bit








There were many comments made about his appearence, and what he may be allowed to do to my friend, werewolf or not. In fact she talked at GREAT length about that the whole way home. Then... because I am a mean friend, I showed her this

Which came out the year after we graduated high school

Santa

The first thing I wanted to do after Thanksgiving was get that santa picture. I was so excited, this is a Christmas tradition, and I get to share it with my daughter, how cool is that?
Everyone was against it.
"You're going to let some dirty old man hold your baby?" asks my mother.
"It's flue season, you'll get her sick!" says my aunt
"It's too cold outside for babies, stay indoors." advised my grandmother.
"She'll only cry," my brother pointed out

I was obstinate. Santa was going to hear my little girls christmas wishes, so help me.

So I went shopping for the perfect outfit.

"Don't get that one, it'll get stained." My mom told me helpfully
"She'll outgrow it before she wears it twice." My aunt reminded me
"It may be too warm" My grandmother said, "She'll have to wear an outfit under it, and then it may be too tight."
I was sensing a pattern.
Still, I bought the outfit, I put the baby in it outside of an Atlanta bread company (over her other outfit, but wow, the horrified looks I got when I took out the changing pad(never used!) and put it down on the table, poor diners thought I was going to change a diaper or something)
and then marched up to see Santa.
And the picture was taken.

Everyone on facebook commented on the adorable outfit, and how cute it was I took my baby to see Santa.
My mother learned how to use picture messaging to spread this picture around
It's the background on my aunts computer
My grandmother printed off copies and turned them into Christmas cards.
Go figure, maybe the new mom was right?

Thanksgiving

I'm so behind on posting, lol, it's been a busy week, just getting back into the routine of things.

So Thanksgiving morning my husband and I were woken up by a phone call, his grandmother had died. Naturally he was very upset, and so was I. His grandmother was a wonderful woman, whom I'd met on many occasions, but unfortnately Bella had not yet met.

We had been planning to go up to his home town next month to visit her.

It wasn't really a surprise, we knew she was sick. In fact her liver failed a year ago, and we had been told on numerous occasions that she would die within days. The last time we saw her was at her seventy-ninth birthday party on mothers day. I couldn't travel after that, and the doctor only just gave us clearence to travel again at my six week checkup last week. So its not as though we could help it, but we felt guilty all the same.

My husband decided he would go to the funeral alone, since my mother was only visiting a few days before she had to fly back to California, the baby and I would stay with her, and the rest of my family in Columbus.

That night we ate thanksgiving dinner, and let my husband baby sit the baby while my mom and I went to New Moon. I felt like a jerk, but he insisted, and wanted to spend some time alone with the baby.

After the movie (more on that later) my mom and I went to Walmart and got Bella a swing, and a tummy time mat. The next afternoon, my husband drove to his grandmothers funeral by himself. Don't I feel like a jerk :(

Pulled

Bella is home recovering from her first road trip. We had a great time. We left Sunday morning, and when we passed through Atlanta visited my friends baby shower.
They had a nice baby shower, I'm talking champaign, (which of course I couldn't drink :( ) different types of cheese, little mini bagels with salmon and cream cheese on them, and exquisite decorations.
And there my husband and I were in our travel-comfie clothes, with a baby who was not enjoying being out in her car seat while the car wasn't moving.
Still, we had fun. These people were our neighbors at our last apartment (my favorite place I've ever lived) and we actually made friends with their fifteen year old son first, and then his dad, then his mother. They're great people, lot's of fun to talk to, and I've missed them so much. I'm glad we went, and I think their son was happy to have someone to talk to. :)
So we visited, and gave our gift, and then out the door we went to drive another two hours to go to Columbus. We were supposed to drop by my mil's house and say hello before proceeding to my Aunts house, where we would be staying the week, but instead stayed at my Mil's for the night. We were just to tired to do anymore driving. Even though it was only 8:00 at night, the twenty minute drive to my aunts was just too much, and if we were tired, Bella was exausted.
She handled it like a champ though. She cuddled with her grandmother, and her (step? how do you say this? we've got to figure it out before she can talk, he's a great guy, but my husband doesn't call him dad or anything, he was too old before they got married, so what should my daughter call him?) grandfather, and her uncles coo'd over her. (Still too nervous to hold her, lol)
We watched "Up" (saddest movie ever, btw) and went to sleep.
When we woke the next morning, we ran some errands, ate lunch with some friends, and visited my Mil during her lunch break, so she could show off the baby to her friends and co-workers.
My aunt wanted us to stay for dinner (makes perfect sense to me, right?) my husband wanted to go to my mil's after she got off work at 6:00, and hang out until we went home to go to sleep. "She wants to see her grand daughter." Was his reasoning.
Yeah... we see her once a month, I haven't spent time with my family in a year. Hmm..
To be fair, my mil seems to get the road goes both ways thing and visits us frequently, but this week wasn't supposed to be about visiting her, it was supposed to be about visiting my side of the family. We're seeing her in about two weeks when we go to her home town to visit with her parents, and siblings.
We decided to eat at my Aunts, and head into Columbus after dinner. My brother came for dinner, and we had a great time. When it came time to go to Columbus though, my husband decided it would be better to visit tommorow, because it was getting late (it was about 7:30, but we would want to be in by 10:00 so we weren't bothering my family by coming in late).
Problem is my grandmother was coming in the next day, and we wanted to spend time with her, and the next day my mom came in, and then his family left for thanksgiving on Thursday.
Anyhow, between seeing my relatives, getting everything ready for thanksgiving, and the fact that my mil got off at 6:00 each night, which left a small window to visit, we didn't see her again while we were in town.
Note: She is not upset, I mean she was dissapointed to not see Bella, but she understood. My husband felt terrible though, and that irritates me.
Why did he commit to seeing them beyond that one night we stayed at their place? I asked him not to, because I knew this could happen, but when his mother asked if we would drop by again while we were in town, and I said we would try but it was a pretty busy week, he cut in and said we would make it down here sometime before Thursday, not for long of course, but we would be back.
That put pressure on, and each day we tried to find time, and felt terrible when we couldn't. Had we just said from the get go, "we'll stay with you a night, and eat lunch with you, but after that we're visiting with her relatives who drove or flew to be here that she hasn't seen in a year, and have never met the baby," everything would have been fine. We could have just ended with that lunch and been done with it.
I hate this, I can't wait until our families don't live in the same town anymore. My mothers moved, my brother is moving to Atlanta, and my Aunt and Uncle are moving back to New York. Then when we visit, there isn't any pressure to make rounds, no hurt feelings, just visit, and go.
I won't even have to choose about Holidays. His family is Jehovah's (sp?) witness (my dh wasn't raised as a witness, I'm not sure when my mil converted, it was before he met me, but it sounded recent then) so they don't do holidays. As long as we visit during breaks at some point we should be fine.
But no more of this trying to appease everyone in one trip thing, either someones going to get their feelings hurt, or I'm going to spend the whole trip stressed, or both!