| Catching Up... |
[Dec. 14th, 2008|10:51 am] |
I realized I never posted anything about Thanksgiving and have only really posted birthday wishes. So here is the catching up post...
THANKSGIVING:
Scott, D2, and I got up early on Wednesday morning, since we got the day off of work, and drove six hours to my Aunt Roseanna and Uncle Sam's (yes, I have an Uncle Sam - no snickering) house in Pueblo, CO. Halfway there, we met up with my mom, dad, and grandma at a gas station in Colorado. They take a different route than we do to get over the mountains in Southern Colorado/Northern New Mexico. We get to take I-25 the entire way, they had to take a state route, then meet up with I-25.
We were the first of the family to arrive at my Aunt and Uncle's house. Their kids live in Pueblo too. Their oldest son is married and has two children. Their youngest son is not married, but has one child.
So we hang out watching tv, chit chatting and what have you till my Aunt Dorothy (again, no snickering) and Uncle Scott arrive from Wichita, Kansas (NOW you can snicker).
The sleeping arrangements in the 3 bedroom (with one bedroom turned into a pool room) house are going to get complicated with the expectation of the arrival of Dorothy and Scott's two children and two grandchildren...
So, mom and dad are sleeping upstairs, grandma is sleeping in Sam and Rose's bed, Sam and Rose are sleeping on the pull out couch. Scott, D2, and I are sleeping in the camper. Scott and Dorothy and their children all got hotel rooms in different hotels. Gotta love family...
Sometime in the night my cousins from Kansas (Scott and Dorothy's children and grandchildren) arrived. The next morning we all met up at Sam and Rose's to prepare our portion of the holiday meal. We then hauled all the food over to Tim (R & S' oldest son) and Amy's house to eat. We played card and board games for hours. The guys watched football from time to time while we played games. Then we watched a movie while playing games.
The kids played pool or video games. I felt sorry for D2 though. She was the oldest of the kids. The next oldest was 8 (one boy and one girl), and then two four year olds. She mainly got to play babysitter, but they had a nintendo she got to play. The Wii was in the living room and Amy didn't want the kids playing in there since that's where all we adults were.
The next day, black Friday, half the family got up and drove north to Colorado Springs (1 hour drive) and up to where an old narrow gauge train run on coal takes you up to "The North Pole" and "Santa's Workshop". Some of the family stayed home, and Scott and I went shopping. We didn't get up at 5 am though. We weren't that insane.
We had a list of things we wanted to get and figured if they were there, we'd get them and if they weren't, we'd find something else. Every store had exactly what we were looking for except Sears. The saw my mom wanted to get my dad was sold out. So we got a different one that was still on sale, but $50 more - after her approval, of course. The stores weren't bad, except for Kohl's. I sat in the car while Scott ran into Kohl's. Glad I did. He was in line for 45 minutes. I would have been a bit pissy if I'd had to stand there that long.
We got back to the house and immediately started playing board games with those who were still home (after eating some good lunch).
Saturday my brother, his wife, and their child showed up. I say their child because he has two children from his first wife too, but they did not come to visit for Thanksgiving.
This is the first time in over 10 years my brother spent a holiday with the family, that's why this is significant to note. :) It was really great to see him. We played Apples to Apples with them for a while since they brought it for us to play. Scott, D2 and I had to leave to get back home (and beat the snow over the pass).
My brother stated that they are going to come for Christmas. Since we are having Christmas at our house this year it's going to be packed. It's going to be fun too!
CHRISTMAS PREPARATION:
All of my children will be home since Son 1 is getting leave for Christmas. He and his wife will be here, S2, D1 and D2 will be here, my mom, dad, and grandmother and my brother, his wife, and all three of his kids, plus Scott and myself.
I am going to have to borrow chairs, but we have two long folding tables we can setup for all of us to eat at (and a slightly large kitchen). I've thought of a way to serve the food on the counters by buying those large plastic cutting boards (I need new cutting boards anyway) and putting them over the sinks. I just don't have a lot of counter space, but if we do it that way, we can put some of the dishes on the cutting boards as they'll now be counter space. :)
I am going to make an apple/raisin/cranberry pie, a raisin pie (funeral pie), and a sweet potato pie today. We are going to have ham and some surprise my mom has (I'm thinking duck) because she told me not to get a turkey, green bean casserole, corn casserole, fruit salad, green salad, veggie tray, scalloped potatoes, yams (with brown sugar and marshmallows), and cranberry sauce. If anyone wants any recipes for any of the above, I'll post them on the LT Recipes journal, just ask. :)
Last week we put up the Christmas tree and I got all the presents we had purchased wrapped and put under the tree. Yesterday we finished up our Christmas shopping and got the presents that need to go to Ohio shipped. I have 4 more gifts I am waiting on arrival since I purchased them online and I will get those wrapped and under the tree and that will be done. We still haven't put up Christmas lights outside and I'm not sure if we will get them up this year or not.
We also still have to get the plastic put up over the windows. We've been slacking. We had planned on doing it today, but it's snowing outside. This means the window casing will be too cold for the tape to stick to and the plastic will just fall down. Yesterday it was almost 60 degrees, we should have done it then, but we'd been out running around all day and wanted to relax when we finally got home about 4pm.
When I get done posting this it will be time to head to the grocery store, dollar store, and Walgreens. Then we will come home and I will bake and try to play Star Wars Galaxies while the pies bake since I won't be putting plastic on the windows.
Anyway, I guess I'll be off to brave the grocery store. Wish me luck! |
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