Holidays

It's hard to believe sometimes that we are 24 and 26 year old adults, out on our own on this journey together. It becomes even more real when the holidays approach, especially this year. Usually for Thanksgiving we kind of do our own thing together because with school we never got enough time off to go home because we always knew for Christmas we would. Last year for Thanksgiving we went up to Oregon to my Dad's house which was a lot of fun and such a great visit, but this year since we are 3,000 miles away from all of our family we will most definitely not be going home for Thanksgiving, and we aren't flying back for Christmas either. We have reached a point in our lives where we want to finally start creating our own traditions as our own little family. We are engaged, getting married within the next year and a half, and soon after that will be trying to grow our family even more. Its hard sometimes to believe that we are at this point in our lives and I will admit it makes me a little sad, but it also is an amazing place to be with Bobby because I know what we start doing now for the holidays will carry on to when we are married in our first house, with our children, and so on and that is absolutely amazing to think about!

This year for Thanksgiving there are a hand full of Simon students that are from California like us, that will also not be going home for Thanksgiving because in two short weeks they will be flying back home for winter break. So, my friend Theresa and I thought it would be fun to get that little group together and have a Simon Thanksgiving together, so that is what we are doing. There will be 6 or 7 of us getting together, collectively cooking the meal together, and sharing this special holiday together at our friend Theresa and Pedro's house. I am really happy to have met such awesome people here in Rochester that we are able to spend such a joyous holiday together with. These are people who I know will be a part of our lives forever.

Christmas is an entirely different story. Everyone will be going home for Christmas, and pretty much Bobby and I will be left here. We decided that it would be too expensive to fly home for Christmas since we just flew back a month and a half ago, and I will be flying back in February for Laura's baby shower. Bobby has really also been wanting to start our own Christmas traditions together so that is what we are going to do. It is also going to be our TEN year anniversary together on December 23rd so what better year to kick off our own future Graham family Christmas traditions than this year. Believe it or not we have never gotten a tree together, and have NO holiday decorations (including stockings) so this year we are going to get a tree! I also want to get us stockings (although the ones I have been wanting from PB are SOLD OUT AGAIN!) and a few cute little decorations to start to build up our holiday decor collection that we can build upon over the years. So, although I am a little sad to be so far away from family and friends, I am so grateful and excited to have Bobby and I start our own Christmas traditions that we will carry on throughout our life together. It will also be our first WHITE Christmas together....maybe this was all just meant to be :)