The good, the bad, and the ugly. The fun the festive and the yummy.

Here is my unnecessarily lengthy synopsis of our eventful weekend.

We planned out our Thanksgiving this year to go as smoothly as possible on all parties involved. Usually I haul a trunk full of stuff (food, kitchen tools and supplies, etc.) to Cami's as early as we can get ourselves there, and start preparing. I usually like the idea of a busy kitchen with Christmas music and hubbub on Thanksgiving. But it seems something always gets neglected or forgotten in all the business (remember my sad croissants last year?), and I don't always get to fully enjoy the culinary magic that comes with this feasting holiday. So this year, I merrily volunteered to make the meal, and have it ready by noon for our company to show up and enjoy. I like to have meals as early as possible, so I forced this upon my guests. I hope they didn't mind.

The good: The food prep could not have gone more smoothly. Like I said before, I bought most of my groceries on Friday, I did a tiny bit or shopping on Tuesday, and one last minute trip on Wednesday, all with hardly a line to stand in. I love that. Anyway, I did as much food prep as I could on Wednesday. I wanted to do a lot more including the table setting and furniture rearranging, but I was pretty burned out. I actually thought I was getting sick and had to sleep/lie down for a lot of the day. I was feeling achy and weird. But when I woke up from my nap I was feeling much better and ready to start my checklist. I even got the turkey all ready to just pop in the oven (we don't stuff our turkey, so don't worry, the stuffing wasn't in there all night). I woke up bright and early Thursday, but was not rushed at all. I turned on the Christmas music and got to work. As soon as I put the turkey in, everything else was last minute stuff. So I was able to leisurely get myself and everything ready and even sit for a few moments (and I needed it. I forgot how much working in the kitchen challenges my back.) to enjoy a little of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. KC was a great helper, and it was a fun morning together. This picture is me stuffing sage rosemary butter under the turkey skin. If you can handle getting your hands in there, it's so worth it.
The Yummy: The guests arrived with some delicious additions for the table of food, and we all sat down for a great meal. Even the kids sat for a while at their little table. I loved having the Turpins and the Cottrells in our home. It's nice to have a place this year that can accommodate everyone. We had everything from apple sausage stuffing, to macadamia nut crusted sweet potatoes, and of course our favorite pretzel jello. We ate ourselves to our fullest with the traditional feast. I'm relieved to say everything turned out quite well. We relaxed for a moment or two before we headed to the Turpin's for dessert, cheese ball, and games. KC and I did as many dishes as we could so we wouldn't be overwhelmed when we got home, and then joined everyone. We had a great time perusing the black Friday ads, and played some low key games. When we decided we were hungry again, we tried to eat some dessert and snacks. I was seriously hurting. Too much food. Also, thanks to Cami for letting me steal these pictures.

The bad and the Ugly: A while after dessert during another game, KC told me he was feeling a little weird. I was so full that I was feeling sick, so I thought that's what he meant. But he said no, it was that distinct sick feeling. After a while he said we better go home. So we started on our way and he asked me to stop at a rest stop to let the nausea pass. After waiting a few minutes, we went on our way again, but we didn't even make it home before that plastic bag I keep in the car came in very handy. Poor guy got rid of his whole day of Thanksgiving food. I was all of the sudden freaking out that he had food poisoning. But from what I heard, no one else was sick, so looks like he had a stomach bug. He spent the next few hours after that back and forth to the bathroom. How awful for my poor KC. I was so happy to see him sleeping peacefully after that hard night. Hopefully he's not completely against thanksgiving food now. We just had leftovers for dinner so I think he's okay. It took him a couple days to want any, but he's trooper. I hate to see him in such misery. I'm always so relieved when those episodes are over. A similar thing happened to me last year. What is our problem?

The fun: On Friday, I was itching to get out of the house. KC was still recovering, so gave him some choices of foods to try to eat and headed out for a little shopping. I usually avoid places where I know crowds may be present (i.e. the mall on Black Friday), and I guess I felt so cooped up from cooking for a couple days straight and dealing with the flu that I was willing to take my chances. I'm so glad I did. I went to an outdoor mall and it was so fun to see all the cheerful faces and hear the fun music. I got some great deals, and actually had some nice conversations with some friendly strangers. There were hardly any lines since I went around 8:30 am and the early morning rush was over. I also got a couple big pots of poinsettias for only 99 cents each at Home depot. Nice. And don't worry, I snagged a copy of Pee Wee's Christmas Special on sale. Oh how I love that show. Here's a little clip. Maybe it will help you see why I love it so.
You may not love it like I do, but this has been part of Christmas for as long as I remember, so I'm proud to own it and to be able to watch it every year, even when I don't get to go to my parents' house for the holidays. Anyway, we relaxed for the rest of the day and we decided a movie would be fun. We saw Four Christmases, and though a little questionable in parts, it was a good laugh. It was mostly just nice to get away from the busy weekend to enjoy some mindless entertainment. Then we just relaxed some more. Our theme for that day I guess.

The Festive: Saturday morning, after I did some Young women stuff, and KC did some work stuff, we met up with the Turpins to go cut down our Christmas tree. We drove through the beautiful Howard County, passing some gigantic and gorgeous houses on acres of land, to the tree farm. We had such a fun time hunting down the perfect tree with the little boys. We got a pretty full tree. Maybe we're just so excited to have enough space for it that we went a little overboard. Well, I love it and I love the smell. I hope it lasts this whole month. We'll decorate it soon, when we have time, but until then, I just love is as greenery in our living room. I'll post more pictures of this outing later. We ended the day by watching Dan in Real Life. I love that show. It's crazy that Christmas is here!I'll take a moment to write about how thankful I am for so many things. My sweet and enduring husband, my warm home, my extremely supportive family (including in-laws!), my loyal friends, and my loving and forgiving Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. There are so many little things I take for granted every day. I have so much to be happy for. For all these things, I am truly thankful. Happy Thanksgiving to all.