New Ideas

Good morning!
Normally as I write this I would be sitting with the twins watching cartoons and drinking my coffee. That's my Thursday routine. But not this morning. I am sitting at home. Still drinking coffee but no cartoons and a dog rather then the twins. Today I have gotten a reprieve.  My boss as asked me to work late tonight as they are going to a concert at Disney hall tonight. That means I will be off at around 10:30 11 tonight. Now if i had gone in at my normal time that would mean something like 15 1/2 or 16 hour day. With work tomorrow as well. I would die. completely. When asked to do this I was hoping for an hour maybe hour and a half later start in the morning. I didn't expect more. But, I don't have to go in till 2! That makes today a nice 8 or 9 hour day. I am so grateful. The kids also have the day off from school which makes my job 10x harder. But they are taking Lola (the oldest) with them to the concert so I will just have the 3 little ones. I can't even express the dread that was hanging over me about today. But now everything's good.

Now on to another topic. Christmas. I know, I know, it's still 3 months out. But if I am to make most if not all of my gifts I need to start now. Want to know how many people are on my list? 39. That's the combined list of all the people Jono and I need to give gifts to. At least who I think we should give gifts to. There are a some that Jono doesn't feel are completely necessary. I also got a checked from Jono on this topic yesterday. I was telling him who all I thought we needed to give gifts to and what I wanted to do for everyone.  I'll admit I was rambling, and Jono said he wanted to help. I was a little taken aback, since I was telling him about it all and he could say at any point if he agreed or not, given he could get a word in. I had always thought of presents as more of my thing and then just added his name to the card. But he wants to take part. He wants to really sit down and discuss what we are giving people. He is mostly concerned  with my side of the family. I am always surprised how much he likes my family. I know how different they are from his family and I know that they can get a bit overwhelming if your not used to them. But he loves them. It's one of the things that make me realize how serious he is about us. He know how much family means to me and he makes a huge effort. Whenever there is a family get together he makes a point of coming, no matter for how long he can actually be there, and tries to make time to talk to everyone. He wants to have a relationship with my family. i've never seen someone work so hard at it. So when he said he wanted a say in what we gave people I wasn't going to fight him on it. When I got over my shock I realized that there are some of my family that he might have a better understanding of then I do. For example lets take my cousin Cass. I always think of Cass as 6. I don't know why. But it always takes me a minute to remember she is older and then I'm lost. But not Jono. He has a very clear idea of people and who they are. I'm sure he will come up with much better ideas for Cass then I would. I guess she is kinda past the little kid toy or picture book phase.  I know that I need to realize that Jono does love my family and I don't need to worry about it anymore. He is excited to show them pictures during thanksgiving of what ever place we move into. And it's not fake. He is truly excited to see them. I don't know if I will ever be able to express how much this means to me. I've been with guys who knew family was important to me and would try with Joey and Lars, but not the whole family. I know I need to step back and realize that gifts don't just come from me anymore, they are from Us. And he wants to make sure he is involved.

So on to another topic! Cooking. As you know I cooked a lot last weekend. I was very productive. But I didn't even make a dent in my list of recipes to try. it is 466 pages by the way. Some I have tried. maybe 10 of them. And I add to it every day. What I have decided I need to do is have dinner parties. Or some sort of gathering at our house. Then I can cook these things and they don't just all sit in the fridge. Jono does his best to eat everything before it goes bad but he is only one man. So we have started a list of people to have over for dinner. I have also set up to cook with my dear Jane once a week. That will use up some of them. I'm sure I have some dud recipes in there but which ones? And so we begin. I have started going over them all during the week and making a "to make" list every week. Normally none of these get done but last weekend they did. I hope to do the same this coming weekend. Wish me luck!
hugs+kisses
mce

p.s. I know some of my family reads this. For those of you who do please give me any ideas of what you or others might want. I think I have around 4 ideas total. For 39 people. So any input would be a great help! ( and Cass if you do want toys and picture books I will totally get you some. )