Thanksgiving Recap

Holy smokes! What a Thanksgiving! This has been a fantastic holiday, with all the cheer and good times a holiday can bring. But with all of that comes a hectic schedule and one very tired Erin.

Our Thanksgiving started on Wednesday afternoon with the arrival of my dad, his sister Peggy from Kentucky and their cousin Mary Lou from Chicago.  Todd, Devin, the twins and I were anxiously awaiting their arrival in the front yard on a beautiful, 85-degree day.  Welcome to winter in South Texas!

Aunt Peggy had never met my girls before and the last time Mary Lou saw them, they were still in the NICU!  So it was a wonderful and fun meeting for us all.

After a few moments here at my house, Dad, Peggy and Mary Lou made their way to my sister ZZ's house and later on we all joined up over there for a yummy spaghetti dinner.  Seven kids and six adults makes for one busy and loud meal!

We retired back home where I did last minute preparations for the Turkey Day meal.  We got in bed fairly early and were awoken at 7:30 on Thanksgiving morning by Devin asking if it was time to eat turkey yet.  Ummmmm...a little longer, okay?

So we began our morning pretty slowly, but around 10:30 things began to pick up as the family started to trickle in.  Dad broke out the scotch and ZZ and I imbibed in Port Wine and Sherry all day long.  A steady buzz was had by all.

Overnight, the weather turned cold and the high temperature on Thanksgiving Day was only in the 40s -- a very big deal for South Texas.

So we all stayed indoors all day long, watching football and alternately taking naps on the couch.  The kids ran around upstairs like feral children and finally, around 2:45, we sat down to a dinner of roasted turkey, homemade dressing, raspberry green beans, bourbon sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, brown-n-serve rolls, and cranberries.  It was all topped off by pumpkin and pecan pies after the kitchen was cleaned off.

After such a long day, we weren't up for much more than just hanging around, which is just what we did.  

On Friday we all went to lunch at a favorite local BBQ restaurant.  Afterwards, Todd took the twins home while the rest of us went to see Enchanted.  If you are a Disney fan (and you know I am!), this movie is for you.  It lampoons just about every Disney princess movie, as well as a couple of Dreamworks movies to boot.  And, in true Disney fashion, it ends with true love and happily ever after.

Of course, Patrick Dempsy isn't hard on the eyes, either.  :)

We got home in time to watch Texas A&M beat the pants off of the University of Texas -- a totally unexpected upset.  That night was pizza at ZZ's house and another early bedtime.

Yesterday, ZZ's twins, Kaelin and Brendan, celebrated their 3rd birthdays with a party at Chuck E. Cheese.  The girls had a great time in the toddler area and Devin nearly mastered SkeeBall.  He's really good!  

Dad, Peggy and Mary Lou left from there to go back to Dad's house in Houston and we all returned home for naps and a lazy day, as rain and 30-degree temperatures kept us from wanting to do much more than that.

Today hasn't been much better in terms of weather, so we've all spent a good part of our day in our jammies and dining on Todd's yummy homemade tortilla soup.  It's our last day of the Thanksgiving holiday before going back to our regular schedule tomorrow.

Usually, today is the day that we decorate the house for Christmas.  By now, we would have already gone out to the Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree, but the rain and nasty weather have caused us to have to push this tradition back until next weekend.  The girls and Devin are all on the mend and doing much, much better, but we don't want to chance it.  Keeping them out of the cold weather can only do good.

So, in contrast to my neighbors' homes, our house is decidedly undecorated.  I have a little bit of anxiety about this, since I'm usually putting up lights and garland before the Thanksgiving bird is even out of the oven, but I'm just going to have to hold tight and remember that while our normal decorations are not out, the one, ultimate decoration that I've been dying to purchase as arrived and is in place.

Have you ever seen the movie A Christmas Story?  Of course you have...unless you're Tina Zimmerman.  Oh, and Tina --  I know you are reading this and I will kidnap you sometime this holiday season and force you to watch this flick.  M'kay?

Anyway, what's the greatest decoration in that whole movie?  I mean, what, of everything in that house, stands out as the most stunning and unusual piece of decor you've ever seen?  

The leg lamp, of course!

And isn't it something that every home needs, especially around the holidays?  

But of course!

You guessed it, my friends.  Todd and I are the proud owners of a 45" reproduction of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story.  It arrived the day after Thanksgiving and within the hour, Todd had it assembled and in the front-and-center window of our home above our front door.  

It's a thing of beauty and is already the envy of all of our neighbors.  I've been trying to get a good photo of it, but so far nothing has come out.  I'll keep trying, because this is a sight to behold, for sure.  Until then, check out the Red Rider Leg Lamp website.  

And, in closing, I am  happy to say that I finally have access to all of the Blogger.com editing tools that everyone else has.  Our Mac has not been fully compatible with Blogger.com and therefore I have not been able to change font, sizes, colors or do any sort of formatting or block qouting.

But we upgraded our operating system and Ta Da!  Eureka!  I've got it all!  Now I just have to figure it out all.  Thanks for bearing with me.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and here's to a fabulous Christmas season.

A Few Minutes Later

Why won't this darn thing stop using the large font size letters?  Ugh...sorry for the inconsistency!  It's driving me crazy!  I think I like having no ability to format better than formatting tools that have their own minds!