Thanksgiving, my Aggies, church adventures, and shopping

I don't think I've ever been away from blogging for 6 days before. Now I have so much catching up to do. I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving. We certainly enjoyed ours. My mom came down Wednesday afternoon. She had to leave my dad behind because he developed the worst stomach virus in their 37 years of marriage. Yes, 37 years! Wednesday night Stephen and I had a much needed date-night to the best place to eat in the state of Texas. We went to Christopher's World Grille where an order of raspberry tea is $4.50 and they don't make an entree for under $20. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that he won a gift certificate, we could never afford a place like that! Good eats y'all. We seemed to be at a loss for words since the kids were home with Grandma. We got to hold hands and just enjoy the moment. After the wonderful Greek Lamb Chops and Zihuatanejo Snapper we enjoyed some dessert and took our time leaving. When we got in the car we were surprised to see that we had only been gone an hour and a half.

Thursday Mom and I prepared the turkey dinner while Stephen tended to a nice fire and kept the kids out of the way. After stuffing ourselves like turkeys, everyone went down for a nap except Stephen and me. We watched the Cowboys. Well, I dozed off a little and woke up to Stephen standing over me, telling me it was snowing in Dallas (which is really Irving). For dinner that night we had our dessert, we were too stuffed to have any after the meal.

Friday morning I awoke with tons of energy, more than a 35 year old, 32 week pregnant woman with a 3 year old and a 21 month old should...I made my favorite breakfast casserole and had it in the oven before anyone else woke up. Stephen started bringing all the Christmas decorations down from the attic. We all started a little shopping after the big sale rush was over. Stephen's birthday is tomorrow so I usually buy for both occassions but he was with us so it made it hard. We made it home and put the kids down for a nap in time to watch my Aggies beat the hell outta t.u. WHOOP! What an exciting game it was, the Aggies played like they should have played all year. I asked Stephen what would happen if we played t.u. at the beginning of each season instead of at the end, I mean really, we beat them last year and they were National Champs! I was a little saddened by Coach Fran's answers to the questions he was asked as he was walking off the field. He was asked about his relationship with his players and he basically said, "No comment." 5 years at the best university in America....with the best student body in America...and he couldn't comment? I looked over at Stephen and said he is going to resign. Maybe this wasn't a big secret....I guess I figured he'd be fired like Slocum was in 2002. Sure enough, within the hour, he resigned as coach of the Aggies and said he wouldn't be available to coach at a bowl game. Ya know.....it's what A&M football needs but I have to give the man credit, he has been involved in several wonderful charities in our community and I only hope our next coach will do the same. Friday night Stephen and I took advantage of the kids' playmate (my mom) and we went to do a little shopping for the kids.

Saturday the 3 girls went shopping for Daddy's birthday. What fun to drive through nasty cold rain and go in and out of shops. When we got home, we were surprised to see that Stephen had decorated most of the house. It looked so beautiful! Saturday after we all woke up from our naps, mom treated us to Red Lobster, yummy!

Yesterday we made it to church...forgetting that the nursery isn't open most holidays...and took the kids into the sanctuary with us. Thank goodness I packed a bag of tricks but that didn't work for long. Lauren did a wonderful job, probably because Grandma was there to help, but it was only a matter of time before Caleb couldn't sit and snack any longer. Since my belly is so big, I can't do much to help Stephen so he took Caleb out. About 10 minutes later he came in to show me that Caleb's sleeves were soaked...I think he was going for a 2nd baptism because Stephen said he dipped both arms in the fountain outside the church. Stephen was taking him to the warm van and said he'd be back. It is so hard to take the kids to church right now, sometimes Caleb doesn't want to stay in the nursery, I know it will be even harder when we have a newborn. I want to make it all the way through advent without missing mass but I don't know if that's realistic. Oh the guilt!

We had a nice lunch at On the Border....walked through the Aggie tent sale...and then it was home to see Mom off. It was such a nice, relaxing holiday. I don't want a big rush to Christmas, I want to enjoy each and every day. I am very excited about listening to Christmas music...I have found a great station online that plays Christmas music and my classroom is decorated as well.

Which brings me to today. As I was coming to work I heard talk about our new coach coming from Houston. I emailed Heather in Florida...why does she always hear Aggie news before me? I live here for goodness sake! She said there's a news conference scheduled for 11:00 today (now) and she thinks it is to name our new head coach as Mike Sherman, the offensive co-ordinator from the Houston Texans. He already has Aggie ties and he led the Green Bay Packers to 3 NFC North titles so this may be just what the Aggies needed.