Happy Thanksgiving!

One of my dreams about having a bigger house was to host holiday functions. That dream came true when we hosted 23 persons for Thanksgiving on Thursday. Thankfully Ron and Elaine were not possessive of the festivities taking place at their house.

Thanksgiving started off at an early hour with me arising at 6:00 am to go to the pharmacies for the Black Friday (yes, misnamed I know) deals at CVS and Walgreens. The majority of the CVS deals I had already gotten on Saturday night but there were a few new ones released. I got mostly everything at Walgreens I as looking for so I was quite pleased. The day started of on a positive foot. I got home shortly before 8:00 to find Duncan up with Brady and then Ron and Elaine had arrived since the three of them were driving together to the golf course for some Thanksgiving golf. This may be the new tradition as they did it last year as well. They joined Allen, Mike (Allen's brother) and Bruce at the Forest Lake Golf Course which is about five minutes from our house. I had no problem with them taking off since it gave me the opportunity to tell Duncan that it was his morning to do what he wanted and then Friday morning he would watch the kids while I had my morning!

We had a pretty lazy morning watching the parade until Jennifer arrived with the boys and her mother around 10:00. We had a second breakfast of scrumptious cinnamon rolls and pumpkin pancakes all made fresh by Jennifer. We quickly shooed the kids outside and then we began all the food preparations. We weren't eating until 5:00 (because of golf and kids napping) so we were in no hurry. It made for a very calm and unstressful atmosphere You always hear about people stressing out over the holidays but I have to say that things just worked out so perfectly. Calleigh seemed to be a little stressed though because she would come in and report that Blake had pushed her or tackled her or whatever while they were playing football and then we would watch her go back outside and basically jump on Blake. Those two were going at it all day but it was a hoot.

Watching the parade. Calleigh's favorite was the Rockette's performing.

Kids working on crafts

Speaking of Calleigh, she did have a little criticism about the fact that we were having a turkey cooked in our house. She was not pleased with the smell, most of all. She definitely has a thing with smells (hey, one trait she inherited from me at least!). The big downside with cooking a turkey at our house, or anything in the oven for that matter, is that our fire alarm in the kitchen is so incredibly sensitive that pretty much every time you open the oven it goes off. It is super annoying. So yeah, we heard it quite a few times. The builder is supposed to be moving it to another area so we don't have to deal with it. On the plus side, I guess we're pretty safe if an actual fire were to start.

Bruce and Duncan taking the bird out of the oven.

In the end, it was more like 5:45 or 6:00 when we ate and our guests included Ron and Elaine, the Bergherms, Julia (Jennifer's Mom), the Isidro's, the Mike Isidro's, Allen's parents, and Megan. Everyone brought a dish or two with them and the meal was fantastic. Not that I got to really sit down and enjoy it for very long given the fact that I have three small children. I've said it before and I'll say it again..I would say the number one or two thing that I'm looking forward to having older children is being able to just sit and enjoy a meal. It seems like it's a constant request for a drink, or more of this, or less of that, or "I need a napkin" or "I have to go potty." Someday, someday...

Jennifer was a huge help helping me decorate.

I tell you, I have a really awesome mother-in-law and friends because Elaine, Tangie, Jennifer, and Julia really worked their butts off to get everything cleaned up and put away. I was helping too for awhile and then I had to get Brady to bed and then the Patriots game came on and they insisted I sit and watch. Boy, it felt good to sit down. It didn't hurt that the game was a complete blowout for the Pats with them scoring three touchdowns in 52 seconds off the clock. Some people stayed for part of the game but everyone was gone by halftime. Time to bring out the ads for Black Friday.

The guys goofing off during the game. This could have been their face from watching Sanchez run smack into the backside of his own guy.

Grandpa was nice enough to share his dessert with Brady. Look at Brady holding his football. He was in bed before his namesake took the field though.

Normally we don't do much shopping on Black Friday but since Calleigh needed some clothes and of course, we're still looking for decor for our house, this was a different kind of year. I hit the sack about 12:45 and then was up at 5:15 and hit up Old Time Pottery, Once Upon a Child (Ocoee), Once Upon A Child (East Orlando), dropped off Elaine's Kindle that she left at my house, Babies R Us, Home Depot, Jo-Ann's, another consignment store, and Walgreen's. By this time it was 11:30 and I then met Duncan at Winter Garden Village so we could get some artwork at World Market (50% off) and then I picked up my order from Lowe's that I had gotten on Wednesday night at midnight. It was definitely a full morning. We also bought a new washer and dryer on-line that will be arriving tomorrow morning.

Lunch after our Black Friday shopping.

Duncan did great with the kids prior to meeting up with me, taking them first to the peacock park. He did experience a little frustration though. He went to get a coffee at Starbucks and there was a big line at the drive through. He usually goes inside when that happens but because he had the kids, he just went through drive through anyway. Well, he waited for like 10 minutes to get his simple coffee order and when he pulled away from the window and took a sip, he found that they forgot to put in the Splenda. By this time Brady was asleep and he didn't want to park and have to take the kids inside nor did he want to wait for another 10 minutes in the drive through so he just drove away and couldn't drink his coffee. I feel your pain!

At the peacock playground. Not sure why that binky is in.

Last night I fully intended to write a post here (no headache!) but I took a nice relaxing bath and when I got out, I laid down on my bed and it felt so good. I managed to get myself up a little while later and made it out to the couch where I fell asleep again until after midnight. I guess that's what two early mornings can do to you!

Church this morning was especially good. Our pastor's wife, Alicia, who is also an excellent speaker, spoke about her experience with her son (the story I mentioned in my previous post). It was very inspiring. She mentioned that the name of what he had was Sudden Death Syndrome although it has some other technical name that I don't remember. She said that only 2% - 25% off people survive it and of those, most are in a coma or have some significant brain damage. So again, a real miracle that he is almost completely unscathed other than having a defibrillator put in.

This evening we went to Ron & Elaine's for the lighting of their Christmas tree and to visit with Russ and Saray whom we hadn't seen in awhile. They would have come for Thanksgiving but Russ had to work. Brady didn't want anything to do with Saray but he went right to Russ. We think it's because Russ looks a lot like Duncan.

Brady was captivated by the train!

With Uncle Russ

In pre-Thanksgiving news, Tuesday evening we took a trip over to the Millenia Mall area. We went into a home decor store and then went into the mall. Santa was already there and there was no line so we decided to visit with him. The girls were very excited about the prospect and sat with him with no problems. Brady, not so much as I expected. I can't remember what Calleigh asked for but Aubree's request was for a baby bunk bed. After we left him, the girls wanted to go to the Apple store. Yup, they are their father's daughters. After the mall, we went to Ikea to eat in their restaurant which was having kids eat free. A nice diversion for a Tuesday night. It was funny though because Duncan had gotten out of work a little early because of the holiday week. Duncan insisted I drive because he wanted to get "this email out before sunset." I thought that was a little odd but I was like, okay. Later that night, Duncan confessed that he thought it was Friday and wanted to send the work email before Sabbath. Just a few days off my friend!