It started actually on Monday (it was a LONG weekend!). After I picked Joshua up from preschool, he came home and crashed on the couch, taking a 2-hour nap. He had skipped breakfast and then slept through lunch. I had to force some snacks into him and he barely ate pizza for dinner. I didn't think much of it until Tuesday when he absolutely refused to get out of bed. Even to watch TV! He slept most of the morning and still wouldn't eat. I was grateful it gave me the free time to finish the quilt, but later in the afternoon I decided to call the doctor just in case. We ended up going in, and he got some antibiotics and an inhaler -- the doctor said that Joshua was borderline on needing them, but since it was almost Thanksgiving he gave them to us just to be safe. Luckily the predicted blizzard didn't come before we got home from that, and Ryan got home early from work to beat the blizzard.
The supposed blizzard only gave us a small dusting of snow, which is a blessing for Ryan who has a long commute! On Wednesday the boys didn't have school. They played really well together and we had a nice day at home.
On Thursday we had our wonderful neighbors, the Jacksons, over for dinner (and 2 of their single brothers). That is a story in itself. We originally didn't ask them, since I knew they had family in town and since we ate with them last year. I would love to have Thanksgiving with them again, but I didn't know if they'd want to endure us again! So at the beginning of November, I asked about 3 other families to join us for Thanksgiving. One by one, they all said they'd love to but they had other plans. I got upset. We all know that especially with a young family, you cannot have Thanksgiving alone -- it is just not worth all the effort! I secretly hoped our Arizona family would mention that they wanted to come up for the holiday. Then for a moment I secretly hoped they'd invite us to come down for the holiday (that only lasted for a few hours, until I realized that I really did not want to travel). Finally I decided to talk to the Jacksons . . . they didn't have any big plans yet and were excited to come over. I think I was more excited to have them come! They really are great neighbors and we always have fun together!
I forgot to take pics of the table! So here's a shot of some of the place settings after we were all done and everything was cleared! We made turkey coloring books for the kids -- they could color or write what they are thankful for while waiting to eat.
We had a great afternoon . . . yummy appetizers (who would've thought that the shrimp would've been the most popular food among the kids?), delicious rolls, all the usual Thanksgiving goodness, and 4 pies! The kids played well together, the adults enjoyed some great conversation, and we all enjoyed some Lego Rockband to end the evening!
On Friday we all slept in -- yay! A friend from Arizona, Valerie, was in town and stopped by for about 15 minutes to say hi. Then I went shopping. Most of my Christmas shopping is actually already done. I went out to see if I could find any good deals on games and sports equipment for the PTA to give to the teachers as classroom gifts. (I know some people feel sorry for me that I am having to do things like this for PTA, but I love it! The gifts were originally someone else's job this year, but I am happy that I get to do it instead!) I found chess and checkers for $2 each, and Uno was BOGO half price. I also found decent prices on nerf footballs and some basketballs. My cart was FULL! As I was paying for everything, another employee walked up to the register and said to me, "Wow. You have a lot of kids!" Yes, if these were for my family, that would be a lot of kids . . . I think I got over 20 balls and a dozen games. While I was gone, Nathan and Ryan worked on a "Soda Can Robot" kit than Nathan earned earlier in the month.
Friday afternoon, Ryan and Nathan started on the lights. Details on that deserve their own post -- coming soon! The evening was spent with hot chocolate, setting up the Christmas tree, and holiday movies. Saturday consisted of more sleeping in, holiday lights, and decorating the tree. I love that we spent a lot of the weekend taking care of our home/decorations and just hanging out!
Sunday we got a few inches of snow -- no mention of any "blizzard" in the news! After church, I was humbled by a knock on the door from Carrie, our bishop's amazing wife. She has 2 young kids, is pregnant, runs an etsy shop, and is right now virtually a single mom with her husband being busy with tithing settlement and other appointments. And yet, she brought ME a Tithing Settlement Survival Kit. Ryan definitely helps with this time of year, but no where near the time of the bishop. I should've made a survival kit for Carrie -- she certainly needs one more than I do!
It is absolutely AMAZING! Look at all the time and thoughtfulness she put into the kit! Nathan and I already played the temple Memory game, and all 3 boys loved playing with the pipe cleaners. And I love that I got one of her beautiful bags. Carrie, thanks for your amazing example of service, of thinking of others. I am humbled and hope to be that thoughtful someday!
Nathan's "2 and a half inch person"
Benjamin's "1 foot 8 inch person" that he named "Mormon"; love the blue eyes!
2 comments:
Okay, I have to say it sounds like it ended up being a cozy delightful thanksgiving weekend. Your house lights look great btw. Drew is so happy to be back in to town to play with Josh.
Glad your Thanksgiving turned out!! And I was blown away as well when Carrie showed up at our door. I told her the same thing, that I should've done that for HER!! She really put a lot of time and effort into those! Also, I bought a gift for Mrs. Bakke's classroom that was on the paper at SEP's. I didn't take the item off her wish list, though, so I hope that won't mess things up. Good work getting such good deals for the classrooms. Adrienne and I were in charge of that one year, and it was time consuming, but well worth it!
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