It's a Balance

Happy early Thanksgiving, let the binge eating commence!

My husband and I work different schedules. I work the typical 8-5 with weekends off and he works the typical retail hours which almost always includes working weekends.   He wakes me up in the morning (I'm not a morning person!) and we have about 10 minutes together before I have to begin getting ready for work. Most evenings are also spent with minimal time together, but we make the best of his days off by going out to dinner one of the nights to connect in the midst of a busy week.  There is also the occasional Wednesday where I come home and he is already home. Always a welcomed surprise, until I have dinner in the crock pot and he would rather grab a bite to eat because he's excited that he is home early.  YOLO.   This is where I throw my Type A personality to the wind. 

We have worked through our mismatched schedules and have learned to make the best of a not so ideal situation.  Please do not confuse "not ideal" with "unhappy".  We work through it, its life. We are both blessed to love our jobs and for that reason I would not change a thing.  Our schedules do not always match-up, but we have found creating yearly traditions keeps us close and makes the days we cannot be celebrating together a bit easier. 

July 4th is usually a huge holiday for him, but we make it a point to watch the fireworks together.  In years past, we have cherished this holiday just being the three of us.  We purchase takeout BBQ and watch the city's fireworks display together. This year we were in the mood for tacos, so thats what we had. Quatro de Julio! It's simple, but I truly wouldn't change it for the world.

Halloween is usually spent with me taking PTO and spending the day together.  It may just be Halloween but I anticipate going for our 6 month dental cleaning (like I said we have to make the most of our time together!) and he highly anticipates telling me, "NO CAVITIES FOR ME BABE!" and I don't say a word, because my outcome was not nearly as brag worthy.  We dress up the boy, fill our treat bowl with lots of candy and diffuse a fall mixture of clove and orange while waiting for the doorbell to ring.  In the midst of the trick or treaters, we are usually running around doing odds and ends around the house or he is found baking something pumpkin.  It is the perfect but most simple
day.

 

The Christmas season is usually chock full of time together. I usually take a day of PTO for us to cut down our Christmas tree. Not sure where we will be going this year, as our neighborhood Christmas tree farm has closed. The morning usually begins with Starbucks, cutting down a Christmas tree without a red cup is pretty much illegal. We then rush home to light up the balsam fir incense in the little log cabin, put Marshmallow Word by Dean Martin on repeat, turn on our faux fireplace and parade around creating "Christmas".  More often than not there is beef stew stewing in the crock pot.

Later in December we each take a 10 day vacation (we wont be doing so this year, but next year we will be back at it!) starting a week before Christmas.  I like to have the majority of the difficult Christmas shopping done, but like to keep the odds and ends for us to experience the most minimal hustle and bustle together.  We spend the days doing lots of Christmas type things together like baking cookies, visiting the Christkindl Market in Chicago, watching ALL OF THE Christmas movies and grabbing the boy and taking him on a scenic drive to see all of the neighborhood Christmas lights.

We are lucky enough to spend the major holidays together and for this I am extremely thankful!

We may not have as much time together as some couples, but we work hard to make the best of our time.