5 Days Wasn't Enough

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We sure did. Just like most of you, we had a list of things to get done on our 5 day holiday.
Wednesday we started out looking for matching clothes for our Christmas pictures. Note to self: next year start in October. We went to Target, Kohl's, and the mall. We also made it to my favorite store, Hobby Lobby, to buy ornaments for a new tree. The kids are getting their own tree and we have another tree downstairs which we decided to decorate in red and green. We were so busy that the pies didn't get made and the laundry wasn't touched.

Thursday was the most easy going of all. We stayed in our jammies while I prepped the stuffing, casserole, rolls, mashed potatoes, and turkey. Oh the turkey. It was still frozen! We put it in the fridge Monday morning. Another note to self: put turkey in fridge Sunday. I gave the turkey a cold water bath until Mr. Bird came to the right temperature. Then I gave him a nice rub down with the herbed butter I made on Wednesday. I even got under his skin a little. Then I stuffed him with an onion, pressed garlic, and some sage and rosemary I found growing at the school where I teach. We watched the Cowboy game and then we watched the Aggies. We knew it wasn't gonna be pretty to watch but Aggies are dedicated to our team, win or lose. The turkey dinner was later than planned but so yummy. I was shocked that Lauren loved everything except the green bean casserole. She ate as much cranberry sauce as we'd give her.

Friday we were back out the door first thing. We started out dropping off a meal at a friend's house. She had a baby Thanksgiving morning. Then we continued looking for a shirt for Caleb and more ornaments at Hobby Lobby since they were half off. How many ornaments does it take to decorate a new tree? We left early in the morning and kept the kids out til they were napping in their carseats. Stephen had already put away all the Thanksgiving decorations before I woke up and we spent the rest of the day trying to get the Christmas decorations up. Stephen spent most of the day hanging lights on the house. We were so busy running around that we didn't even get the trees decorated.

Saturday seemed like a repeat of Wednesday and Friday. Up and out the door first thing in the morning. Home for naps and back to Wal-Mart and...you guessed it, Hobby Lobby. We took back the ornaments that we didn't like on the tree and decided on a bow topper and ribbon to match. Then it was dinner at Ci-Ci's. We love to take the kids there. They really eat well. It was cute to see Lauren dip her carrots in the Ranch and give them to Caleb. It worked too.

Sunday was all a rush as well. We went back to Target to return the tree topper we didn't like and to get Caleb some shoes to go with his Christmas outfit. Then I had to return some jeans at another store and it was off to Sam's. I just love Sam's. There is always something new to see there. We got the kids home late for their naps and woke them up early to go get our pictures made. Home for the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers (which Lauren still loved), baths, and then the kids finally got to hang some ornaments on their tree. I snuck away to hang and fold laundry and I even put most of it away. It had been sitting in baskets on my side of the bed for almost a week.

We still did NOT mark off our list:
other Christmas decorations like tablecloths and knick-knacks
4 more loads of laundry
start wrapping presents we have to take to my aunts this weekend
reorganize the kitchen cabinets...glassware up and out of the reach of Abby
print labels for Christmas cards
sign and stuff Christmas cards
buy stamps for Christmas cards
pull toys that need to be donated
plan Abby's birthday party
fill out invitations for Abby's party

Oh, the fun 5 "vacation" days.
And that's why we can't go home for Thanksgiving. We wouldn't have gotten anything done.