Thanksgiving

This year  I’ve been way more relaxed and on top of things when it comes to the holidays.  I had my grocery shopping done early and even remembered to start thawing the turkey earlier than 10 minutes before I wanted to stuff it. I was even chill enough to stop and look at the fish before resuming our quest for green bean casserole ingredients. 

The last few hours of the last school day seemed like eternity.  We were all ready for a break.  I was counting every. single. second.

    

I was outta there right at 4, and off to pick up Sof! 

I went home and started dinner prep…but not before pouring a glass of wine:)

Before you knew it I was done with that!  My dad was in town early so he could go with Mark the next morning to see Adrienne in the parade.  We started talking dinner, and before you knew it we ended up meeting Mark, Adrienne, and 2 dance friends at the local Mexican restaurant.  It was a fabulous stress free night! 

Adrienne and her friends came back and organized their things and went to bed.  Ready time for the parade was 6am, so it was going to be an EARLY morning!

  

The parade has been such an awesome experience for Adrienne!  She loves the excitement downtown, and of course the TV coverage!

It was fun to watch her on TV, and my dad and Mark had a great time watching her in person!  Everyone was home before 1:00!  Unfortunately, my grandma was sick.  My mom made the decision to stay home with her and make sure she was okay.  So, it was an oddly quiet dinner!  Adrienne didn’t even join us, as she had fallen asleep right before(getting up at 4am will do that to you!). 

The middle girls wanted to do a thankful activity, so they had everyone write what they are thankful for.  Livy collected them in a little box she made at school last year and kept.  So sweet. 

We all mentioned family, friends, and health, while Mark once again proclaimed his thankfulness for Crown Royal. 

We have 3 November b-days and one early December that we always celebrate on Thanksgiving.  We were sad that grandma wasn’t there to blow out her candle this year, but so thankful that we had celebrated the weekend before.

  

We did a little Black Friday shopping, and I even bought some Christmas presents!

By this time my mom was in town and took the middle kids to a movie.  A little bit of fun for everyone:)  Although grandma was doing better, she wasn’t up to traveling.  We understood, and know there are going to be more times like this, when she just can’t handle the drive and staying overnight.  One of her beloved traditions is taking all 6 great grandkids to Hallmark to pick out an ornament.  We tried like crazy to reschedule it for another weekend when we could do it with her.  It just wasn’t happening with everyone’s crazy lives.  So, she insisted we go anyway so the kids would have their ornaments to enjoy.  The beauty of it is the kids know full well who’s buying those ornaments and what they mean.  Grandma was definitely there in spirit! 

Natalie was done in about 30 seconds.  She took one look at the Mickey Mouse Ornaments and that was it.  She never changed her mind the entire time she waited for the others! 

Everyone left happy, and we called Grandma to tell her what everyone had chosen.