Thanksgiving issues

This Thanksgiving was supposed to be a more relaxing day with just CP, my parents, my sister, her boyfriend, their dog and of course, our dogs.  It's the day before CP and I go through a life changing event (including major surgery for me with the C-section), so we scaled back our usual efforts.

Of course, there is a snag to our plans.  My sister called me up earlier this week and asked if her boyfriend's mother, uncle, sister, sister's husband and sister's new baby could join us for Thanksgiving.*  SIGH.  My sister doesn't exactly think these things through ummm EVER and it's extremely frustrating.

CP talked it over and although we think that it could be an absolute disaster, we decided that we would say okay to it.  My parents have never met my sister's boyfriend's mom (mom and dad are divorced and supposedly dad is a little crazy).  A holiday would be a good time for this to happen as it will be a few short hours when everyone is in a good mood.

Well, almost everyone.  CP and I might be tearing our hair out a little more than usual with strangers in our house.  I was already going to have to clean for everyone anyway.  But I could certainly take shortcuts if it was just family.  CP and my mom were already splitting up the cooking duties; it was agreed that I should just try to relax most of the day.  However, how Buster will react to the new people in our house is always a question mark.  He will be nicely distracted by my sister's dog and hopefully we can get them to play in the backyard a bunch before the new people arrive, but Buster is always iffy around strangers.  He is definitely going to bark at them....hopefully it won't last long, they will listen to us when we tell them to just ignore him, and hopefully his bark doesn't scare the baby too much.  

But there is also something about feeling comfortable around your family.  Yes, I am supposed to be resting and relaxing that day, but even when I was basically on bed rest for the SCH during my first trimester and my FIL, his wife, and CP's aunt and uncle were in town, it was hard to do.  I know that it is going to be the same thing come next week.  You want to be a good host in your house no matter the circumstances.  Having four strangers roll into your house on a holiday makes the relaxing atmosphere disappear.

So yes, we agreed to have the extra people in our house.  We made sure to tell my sister numerous times that she MUST help clean up.  You see, we have my parents and my sister/her boyfriend over about once a month for Sunday dinner.  CP makes a fabulous meal and my mom usually brings dessert.  Who cleans up at the end of the night?  CP, myself, and my mom.  That is not going to fly on Thanksgiving.

Two other things have occurred to CP and me.  First, we now have a bunch of baby stuff set up and ready for OUR baby.  Now we will have an eight month old (I think) coming into our house and it would make perfect sense for the kid to use the baby stuff that we have in our house.  But selfishly, I want to keep these things pristine and new for OUR baby. 

The other thing is that my sister and her boyfriend have poo-poo'ed marriage for a while.  They have been together for about four years now and have also said that kids are not in their future, thus why get married?  They own a condo together and have a dog together, but again, no interest in marriage.  But lately, I think the tide may be turning.  CP and I think it is very possible that my sister and her boyfriend will steal our baby thunder and get engaged over Thanksgiving.  I mean, it would be a good time with his family and my family together, but then again, you have any other day to do it.  Not right before I am about to have a baby that CP and I worked so hard for.  Then again, maybe it won't happen and our worry of being upstaged will be for naught.  But, we could just see my sister and her boyfriend not thinking about anyone else but themselves (which is typical).

So we'll see how Thanksgiving goes.  Maybe I'll just try to focus on getting excited for the day afterwards as opposed to the holiday.....


*I almost forgot the best part.  Once we agreed to host these people, my sister sent an email to my mom and CP that said, "Oh, and we need to make sure that we make pumpkin pie because X (not sure who) has requested that we have pumpkin pie because it is his/her favorite."  Seriously??  Why don't you bring it yourself then!!  So now my mom is making two desserts because one of the randoms at our house absolutely needs to have pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.  SIGH.