Happy Thanks-mas Everyone

I hope everyone has sufficiently recovered from Thanksgiving and associated goings-on this weekend.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Brandon's family came down and brought lots of desserts with them, and we got to spend lots of time with family at my sister-in-law Val's house, who lives about 40 minutes away from us.  

We are thankful for many things this year.  Among those that won't make me get teary-eyed and unable to resume blogging include:

--Uncle Jeremy becoming a dentist before the Era of Orthodontia begins in our house.  (Please, oh please, become an orthodontist)

--my mother-in-law agreeing to make Baby Girl's crib bedding.  Brandon and I have been unable to agree on a SINGLE bedding set that we have looked at for hours over the internet.  Who knew I married a man who wanted pink and frills?  And who hated sock monkeys?  Anyway, we found a print for the bedding we both like, and we ventured out to the fabric shop Friday and bought just about everything we needed.

--NAPS!  Did I mention "We ventured out on Friday"?  Not only did we venture, but us ladies were at JC Penney, oh yes ma'am, at 4:30 am on Friday.  We were finished at the mall by about 7, and then went to the madhouse that was Kohl's.  I realized that I consider it a sport to find the shortest line to check out in.  At Kohl's, the line for the front registers stretched around the store all the way to the back.  The customer service desk was not taking purchases, but I decided that if I should need to make a payment on my Kohl's card, perhaps they would let me buy my two measly items there at the back desk.  And they did.  So I only waited about 3 minutes in line.  But then I got in the big long line to hold a place for the rest of the girls while they finished shopping.  So by the time we finished up with all of our shopping at around noon, the bed was looking really good.  This may be my last "Black Friday" shopping experience.  Yes, the prices were good.  I just don't know if they were "wake up at 4 am" good.

--Another potato dish at Thanksgiving dinner.  I made my potato casserole because I love it, and Jeremy made mashed potatoes.  My casserole just didn't taste right to me.  About half of it still got eaten, but the texture or something was different.  It wasn't until last night's bought of insomnia that I realized I had left out an entire stick of butter.  Yeah, it needed that butter.

--Early Christmas shopping.  Since this is the last time we will all be together with Brandon's family for a while, we decided to exchange our Christmas gifts after Thanksgiving dinner.  Before dessert, even.  Hence, Thanks-mas.  Last Christmas, Dane and Aidan opened all of their presents on Christmas morning, and I think the sheer volume of gifts at once was overwhelming.  So they will have a few weeks to really enjoy some of the gifts they have already received before the next wave hits.

Some favorites of the day: 

Both boys got a new pair of shoes.  This is monumental in their worlds right now because they only have one pair of shoes to wear, everything else is in storage until we get back into our house.  Dane's shoes were too big and will be his special shoes when he outgrows his current tennis shoes, but Aidan's fit perfectly.  He calls them his "skateboarder shoes".  They have Spiderman characters on the sides and SHOELACES.  He took a nap in them on Thursday because he did not want to take them off.

The boys got a couple of new games for the Wii.  Dane almost wet his pants he was so excited.  This was not a "posed for the camera" face that he usually gives us, this was actually how excited he was:

And Baby Girl even scored some gifts.  Like this ballet ensemble.  Not quite sure what to do with a tutu.  Someone with girls, please advise.

--High school football playoffs.  One of the kids in our high school group plays for Klein Oak, who won their 3rd playoff game Saturday!  Brandon and his dad had a road trip to Round Rock (and beyond, actually, but they eventually made it to the stadium) on Saturday to watch the game.  When I was in high school, I was a trainer for a football team that went 15-1 for the season, ending in a trip to the state finals.  It was so fun, and it's been fun to watch someone we know get to experience the excitement of the playoffs during the holidays.  Go Klein Oak!!

--Key lime pie.  Again, this may not be a "traditional" Thanksgiving dessert, but I love, love, love it.  So I made one.  And since Thursday, I have single-handedly eaten 3/4 of the pie.  And by single-handedly, I mean the baby had some pie, too.  Fortunately, Brandon finished off the last quarter of the pie yesterday morning.  To protect me from myself.

I hope you and yours had a very happy Thanksgiving, or Thanks-mas, or whatever mixture of holidays you celebrate this time of year.