A lot Like Christmas!

Thanksgiving was great :)

I am so so so blessed to have my family. We changed things up this year, in recent years my mom's side of the family have all gathered together at one of my aunt's houses. This year half of us came together at my parents' house. It was SO much better than years past. I have a couple family members (I use those words loosely here) who are pretty clearly homophobic bigots. Needless to say it was wonderful NOT having them around. There are also a few family members who just aren't as close with the rest of the family, and they are just awkward. I liked the smaller more special time I got to spend with the family members who mean the most to me. To me, it felt like it used to when my grandma hosted Thanksgiving. I felt the love in each room...I didn't feel like I needed to pretend to be someone I'm not. I didn't feel like family was pretending to tolerate me. It was nice. So nice. I look forward to the same thing next year, instead of dreading being around family that just really isn't family anymore.

My birthday was this past Saturday!!

My family rented a cabin for the weekend, it was so great to get away with the ones I love the most :) I am 25 now, and intend to stay 25 for a few years!! The cabin we stayed in was called '50 Mile View' and it surely was an awesome view. A couple of friends and my aunt came up Saturday for some cake and to just hang out for a while. When Sunday came it was hard to leave and get back to the real world, but I will remember my first 25th birthday for years to come :) Some pictures of the sunsets...

Also, a raccoon came for a visit over the weekend :) 

Courtney and I sent out Christmas cards this year...Shutterfly is pretty awesome. Inexpensive, good quality cards and labels and they shipped fast! Let me see if I can attach a picture here...don't mind the picture of the computer screen there haha.

We have our tree(s) up!!

The one on the left is our fancy new pre-lit tree that I decorated with flowers from my grandma's Christmas tree. The one on the right is our small tree in our bedroom :) Cute cute!! It is feeling like Christmas at the Brazelton house for sure, now we just need to wrap some presents to put underneath that tree.

Today is my grandpa's birthday, we had lunch at Crown & Goose, a London pub-style restuarant. Always yummy! Here's the young man complete with his Birthday Button!



I think that's about all there is to update about for now!

OH WAIT! We have been talking with a more local known donor, its really sad to think Stacey is turning into "the typical gay boy" I hate to say that, but I don't know what else to think. He didn't even wish me a happy birthday, in fact the last time he responded to anything I sent him was the middle of November. I am disappointed with him. I almost want to just forget about trying with the kit he still has there. Maybe he will surprise us, but at this point I'm not counting on it :( We are ready to go with our new donor starting in February (if for some reason we do try in January with Stacey & it doesn't work)...Our new donor lives about 1.5 hours away, so even if we have to drive down after work, we can still manage that. I feel a lot more comfortable with this option. We have already printed up a pretty informal Known Donor Agreement, that we will have notorized...just so we all know what is expected from one another.

For now we are just enjoying the season. Both of us are working at Holidays on Ice, a small outdoor skating rink downtown, for some extra holiday spending money. I am still temping to confirm O, which should be in a couple of days, just to keep track. Hopefully the New Year will bring brand new things to our little family! I'm ready for a fresh start :)