ahhh...

feeling a bit better, ladies and gentlemen. my head no longer feels like it is going to crack in half and i can breathe through my nose again. :) and we had a pretty good thanksgiving. we have no family anywhere around us, in drivable distance anyway, a fact that we luxuriate in routinely. no obligatory dinners to skip off to or devise escape plans from. no distant relatives to hold painfully awkward conversations with. no horrible gossip and saying grace in the same breath. no saying "i love you" to people who are pretty much strangers in spite of their biologic link to you. these are things that i do not miss and am not envious of. please trust me when i say that the whole "oh but it's family!" sentiment does not apply here. we simply don't have that kind of background. but after all we've been through together, we've become a very sweet little family of our own. unconventional but good and warm and full of the best love. i am extremely thankful i met this man. he is a wonder to me. i am a lucky lucky girl. :)