Proudly wearing our Black & Gold!

Thanksgiving, for me, has always been about spending time with friends and family. This past holiday was no different. We successfully hosted our Thanksgiving dinner with HandyMan’s side of the family on Thursday and then left to spend time with my side of the family later that evening. We had a good time catching up with cousins, aunts and uncles who we rarely get to see and enjoyed eating ourselves into a food coma while remembering to be thankful for all that we have.

As with most families on Thanksgiving, the TV was turned to football all afternoon and evening but the games were mostly background noise for naps, conversation and board games. However, on Saturday the game was front and center.

In celebration of a successful harvest, and just because he’s a huge Gold & Black football fan, HandyMan’s dad took all of us to Ross Ade Stadium for the “Old Oaken Bucket” game in West Lafayette, IN this past Saturday. Since it was cold and Blue isn’t known for ability to sit still and watch a game, we left him with my parents while we made the trek to Boilermaker country to cheer on our favorite Big 10 team.

Trying to stay warm at the game.

HandyMan’s dad is an alumnus of this particular Big 10 school (whose name I’m not allowed to mention because of Michele’s dislike of living in P.U. country while cheering for her beloved Michigan State University) and wanted to share an Old Oaken Bucket game experience with those closest to him. Despite being cold, sitting a little too close to the rival team’s fans and losing the game, we had a really good time. We joined other Boiler fans in cheering “One, two, three, four. First down!” every time our team earned a first down (not as many as we would have liked). We also enjoyed eating bad hot dogs, drank luke warm hot chocolate and joined other Boiler fans in cheering IU Sucks! Even though they actually sucked less than we did, that is if you go by the score at the end of the game. And we don’t! After all there’s “always next year!”

It was also a great time for HandyMan and I to get some (much needed) time together without Blue. For some reason I feel really guilty whenever I leave Blue with someone other than HandyMan – even though I know that his grandparents love him, take good care of him and spoil him rotten! Throughout the past year and especially during the past few months, we’ve struggled to find time to have a “date night” and while this didn’t quite qualify, it came pretty close. We enjoyed spending time with each other when we could just be adults and not also be parents. It also made us realize that we need to make it a priority to have “date nights” more often. It’s too easy to get caught up in being parents and forget to be husband and wife.

I would love to hear suggestions from other parents about how to find the time to get away for an evening without the kids.

~guest post by MRS

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