Home again

We are finally home after a wonderful trip to the UK. Finn and Poppie were both little angels on the plane and the trip went really smooth. Finn had his own seat on this leg of the journey, which made a huge difference to all of our comfort (on the way over we had two seats between the four of us and were sandwiched in by a cold woman who hardly moved the whole trip and made it clear we were not her preferred neighbors, but who could blame her?). The weather is crisp and clear, which I secretly think is helping Nick feel like Seattle is home, because for the past 3 years he hasn't stopped comparing England's crisp, cold, clear with Seattle's warmish, cloudy, wet, and this whole trip home to the UK has been a complete switch in weather.

Anyway.

Finn is thrilled to be back with Inca and Nana and Papa, although he is telling lots of England stories about everyone and how much he loves certain key characters (you know who you are). We all had a wonderful time and it is bittersweet to be back. But really, we couldn't have planned it better because next week is Thanksgiving here in the States, which pretty much means a week of food in our family. The prep will start with a trip to the Farmer's market this weekend, followed by an epic grocery store trip that will take my mom and I two whole American-sized shopping carts to complete. Then the cooking starts. I absolutely love cooking alongside my mother and every year we pull in new recipes to old favorites, trying to up last year's meal. This year we are feeding 18 people, which is mere compared to last year's 25. And as if one day was not enough, we have a second Thanksgiving celebration the day after (although much, much less food this time around) with my mom's side of the family who are in town, but spend the actual day with their extended family.

Thanksgiving marks the beginning of another holiday and I am not the only one excited for it this year. Finn has gotten wind that DEER FLY IN THE SKY AND DELIVER PRESENTS! Deer are his favorite animal at the moment, he received two suitcases of presents in the UK (and thus knows the fun of opening presents) and this whole Santa and his reindeer thing couldn't be better timed. We have already spent all evening talking about it and there is something like 39 more nights until Christmas (which I know because I just googled 'christmas countdown' and am shocked/not shocked that there are actual websites dedicated to the number of days left until Christmas. I bet they get a lot of hits about now, but what keeps them going from December 26th onwards?).

This is the first magical Christmas where Finn has an idea what is going on and I am thrilled to make it really special and start our family's traditions. This is another area in life where it is fun to have a multinational family where we can merge the traditions from both of our countries (not that they are too disimilar).

When I stop to think about how many memories I have of Christmas and my feelings of what makes Christmas magical, I am humbled by the power we have as parents. Nick and I are literally shaping the world for Finn and Poppie and what we normalize, they will respond to as normal for the rest of their lives. The memories and traditions we create now (and beyond that, how we teach them to carry themselves in the world) will forever impact them and will majorly define who they are and what they become.

Kind of heady to think about all of this with my jetlagged mind, so I will sign off.

xoxo