My Only Thanksgiving Pictures

Cousin Natalia, Joshua, Aulora, and Julia all acting silly

Does Joshua ever NOT act silly? No, not really. =)

All the kids minus John David, who feels too old to hang with the kid crowd.

Grey Friday

Last night I slept on the couch. No, no, no. The marriage is good, but John is sick. I am the last man, uh, woman standing. All that pie helped fortify my immune system I guess. I don't think our family has ever been sick for so long. I think it's been 6 weeks now that at least one person has been sick at all times. I sent Julia around with the Clorox wipes the other day. She must have missed Daddy's door knob. Oops.

My mom and I spent a good deal of time on Thursday making our shopping plans. We were pumped up and ready to go. Toys R Us opened at 9 pm and I was going to knock out the Christmas shopping for the kids in one night. Buy one get one free and 60% off are words promising enough to make me wait a couple hours longer to put on my couch pants. (That's my clever name for my stretchy lounge pants because all I want to do when I have them on is lay on the couch.)

We pulled into the parking lot around 9 and I think the car itself started to hyperventilate. The line to get in was ri-freakin-diculous. Needless to say, I never stepped foot inside the store and my couch pants were in use sooner than planned. Bitter sweet.

Black Friday shopping in 2012?

No thank you.

Please remind me, because I always forget how terrible it is. Every. Single. Year.

Although, I did manage to get a really great coat (that I needed!) from Old Navy for only $5. I did not, however, get up at 4 am to get it. I ran in on our way to The Muppet Movie. (Which I did not wear my couch pants to. Very tempting though.)

Maybe Black Friday isn't so bad after all. I suppose it's really not a black and white issue for me.

Thanksgiving Mantel

I didn't decorate much for Thanksgiving other than the little bit on the porch, but I did find this banner online. I loved just adding this one little thing to the mantel, lighting the candles, and calling it a day.

(It was quite a day, by the way. We stayed home and my parents and grandma drove over from Chicago. Only their car broke down and they were stuck on a tiny shoulder of a bridge for two hours waiting for a tow truck. Then they had quite an adventure trying to get a rental car from the airport. They didn't arrive until about five hours after their anticipated time. But, they made it. And we ate. And ate. And decided that Black Friday shopping was not worth it because sleep had to be worth something, right?)

Notes to future self when preparing for Thanksgiving:

• Lots of dvds from the library to keep the kids happy - yes! good idea!
• Buying a gargantuan turkey just because it doesn't cost too much more - ehhhh, not so much. I almost couldn't fit that bird in the oven! ("bird" reference for my father's sake)
• Adding lots of extra, unnecessary side dishes is.....unnecessary. Keep it simple please.
• Bread pudding - I love you.
• Please put the dressing in the oven earlier. Two years in a row I have been waiting on dressing to cook.
• Make the kid table much more exciting and enticing. Put a huge bowl of candy and fudge in the middle of it if necessary. Just make it better than the big table.
• Make place cards. They're pretty, practical, and I always wish I had when it's over.
• Take pictures! Of people and of food. (yes, the food. I want to see it for years to come after all that work that goes into it!) I have NO pictures of our Thanksgiving day this year. =(

I think that's all. Now, if I'll just remember to read this next year.....

Going Well.....I Think

The house is still standing and the smoke alarm hasn't gone off yet. I'm impressed. (Especially since we started our first fire here and there was quite a bit of smoke. These Southerners are only familiar with Duraflame logs and we're now using wood from the rank we had delivered.)

I've made the pies and the homemade cranberry sauce. The sweet potatoes are baked and ready to be glorified tomorrow and the gigantic pan of cornbread is in the oven for the dressing. I even made some fudge! Sadly, it's on the gooey side so I won't have pretty little fudge squares.

At this point, I mostly worried about cooking the turkey, and also trying to have everything hot and ready at the same time. I should probably do a little cleaning at some point too. Children have been having their way with my house as I've been in the kitchen. I'm kind of scared to go down to the basement.......

My First

I think I'm officially growing up this week.

That's right. I'm married. I've got four kids. A mini van. A mortgage.

But I'll finally grow up this week.

Because I'm cooking all of the Thanksgiving dinner. By myself. All of it. Alone. No help. (Breathe!)

I'll start the cooking today, because I think that's what I'm supposed to do in order to eat before midnight tomorrow.

My parents are flying in and driving over from Chicago tomorrow afternoon to join us. And my lovely husband invited a friend from school to come too. I hope nobody has very high expectations!

Today I have errands to run, a little one that probably has to go see a doctor, and for sure a library trip is in order to borrow plenty of movies to entertain all the monkeys while I try to not ruin our Thanksgiving! This should be fun! (I think I may add to my to do list: "Compile list of restaurants open on 11-26")

My mom gave me a wonderful mixer for an early Christmas present so I'm pretty excited about using that. All I've ever had is the little $5 hand mixer from Walmart. I told you - I'm growing up!

Is anyone else cooking for the first time?

Happy Thanksgiving to all.....