Got up and started driving before at 6am to see the little twin humans on their 1st birthday. Spent the day with Katherine & the twins, hugged the Kelly between her classes, and then drove back home. It took 2.5 hours to get there and nearly 4 to get home [plus a stop for food I’m not counting in there]. Well worth it, though. 🙂
Category: I Am Traveling
I have let this blog flounder for far too long and today is my first day back at it. We have had a wacky, crazy year. I’m not even sure that I should try to summarize it, but find myself wanting to. Let’s start where I left off… oh my. Okay. That’s a rough place to start.
December 5th, 2018 my mom left the nursing home to go home for my dad’s birthday. She lasted at home until December 7th, when she had to be rushed to the emergency room. I went down on the 9th because it was clear that she was on her way out of this world. She passed away on December 12th. I spent the month in College Station or Wisconsin. We had two funerals for her, one in each of her hometowns. They were lovely, both of them attended by family and friends and filled with beautiful reminiscences of her full, mostly happy life. (Please note that this is short, not because I am being in any way flippant about it, but because I’m crying too much to say more.)
In January we tried to be humans. We had our annual board game extravaganza on January 1st at my dad’s Tyler house so he wouldn’t have to be alone yet and could be a little distracted from all the sadness. April is with him all the time, but we come and go and try to bring a little joy to them with our visits.
February and March went by kind of in a blur. We visited College Station every couple or three weeks and spent half of spring break with my dad and sister. David and Nick were each gone a week in April and then it was birthdays and Easter all at once. We celebrated in the Tyler house, trying to avoid sadness, but failing. Easter was one of my mom’s favorite times of the year.
In May everything ramped up. The six month anniversary of my mom’s death was literally Mother’s Day. How’s that for irony for you? April and Dad ignored the day completely, while Nick, the kids, and I went to Scarborough Faire for the day (something I’ve been wanting to take the kids to for years. They were, naturally, underwhelmed because we’d waited too long). All the end-of-year “lasts” were heightened because it was David’s last high school everything. We had a graduation party for him the day before graduation, we all attended graduation night outside at the stadium, and then the very next day he left for his band’s spring trip. And because we’re crazy, we had a family BBQ the following Monday with Nick’s family.
June was even crazier, though. Nick and David left the first weekend, Nick for work in the Czech Republic and David for Tennessee for working a pre-teen camp. Then I left for China the same day Nick came back from his trip (and no, we didn’t even get to see each other at the airport). Greg spent weekdays at his Nana & Pa’s house while the other two boys came and went. David had college orientation for a few days in there. Nick and all the kids went to the Houston Aquarium for Father’s Day while I spent Father’s Day with my dad in Tianjin. Then kids all spent the last few days I was gone working the pre-teen camp at Camp Piney Woods while Nick was in Tennessee for work. We all were supposed to get home Wednesday, June 26th, but my flight got delayed by several hours and I ended up getting home at 4 in the morning on the 27th. Then on the 29th, Greg and David got in a van with other church kids and left for Teen Camp at Camp Pinecrest in Missouri. (I will most likely blog about my China trip in some upcoming posts.)
Today is first day I’ve felt human and somewhat put together in a really long time. I’m getting back onto somewhat of a schedule. I’ll be spending weekday mornings at the gym and afternoons writing. Ree has this whole month free, so we’ll be starting parent-led driving lessons for him this week as well, probably in the mornings after I’m back from the gym. 🙂 Greg will be in day camps most of this month and who knows what David will be up to? I sure don’t! He was looking for a job last time I checked, but no one would hire him because he was out of town so much this summer (he has one more camp he’s working at the end of the month).
So there you have it. We are crazy and we know it. 🙂 See you tomorrow.
Every year at this time, my little family takes a break from work and school and goes on a church-sanctioned trip somewhere that we get to choose. Some years we go to the beach (my preference), sometimes to the mountains (my husband’s), and sometimes we stay close to home due to circumstances beyond our control. This is another beach year, our third time at our present destination. Our eldest is a senior in high school and this is the place all his summer camp friends were gathering, so since it is our last time with all our kids to go with us, we let him choose.
So how does all this equal writing? Well, the spouse and kids leave me every day for a couple hours and do the church thing over across the bridge on the other side of the resort. I stay here, in our 7th-floor condo overlooking the ocean, and write, mostly by hand with a fountain pen into a cheetah print notebook someone sent me last year as part of a Halloween craft swap. I have been doing writing exercises from various favorite writing books and writing a few poems and just generally shaking out the cobwebs from my brain.
When the family comes back, we go out for walks along the beach, swim in the ocean, laze by the pool reading books, snark about the internet, and sometimes meet up with others and have escapades. We do not really worry about time or location this trip. Since it is our third time here, we have done all the things worth doing and gone on the dolphin watching trips, and shopped in all the little boutiques that are still open in the off-season. We are just relaxing this trip.
And that has been helping the writing flow…
When we were planning Spring Break originally, Nick wasn’t taking time off. I’d thought about going to see my parents or staying here…and then at the weekend we had a Teen Regional Weekend for church. Plans changed.
Nick looked at the schedule and realized this was a great time to a) do our family vacation (a mini one this year due to other travel going on later in the year) and b) to go see the Magna Carta (on display in Houston). So we added that to the schedule.
Meanwhile I realized that my much postponed visit to see my bff needed to happen during that week, too.
So our break became one long car ride with interruptions here and there.
We started off our break with a Holcomb Family Dinner at Nick’s parents house.
Saturday, this happened:
Then on Sunday we started the first leg of our journey… to College Station, where I spent a lot of time sitting around while the kids went exciting places, like the ice skating rink.
I did break free and run off with Steph for a while to do some catching up and shopping. My favorite thing we saw:
While I was gone:
Then on Tuesday we drove down to Houston to tour the Houston Museum of Natural Science and to see the 1217 copy of the Magna Carta.
On Wednesday, we drove back to Tyler, dropped Nick off, then the kids and I drove to Quitman to visit the cousins at the park near their new house.
On Thursday, we did a bunch of laundry, repacked, and headed up to Colleyville to see Kay. Unfortunately, she was unexpectedly still in Houston. We spent several hours trying to amuse ourselves on our own before she made it back.
Then the girls had to go to gymnastics class (and yes, at this point we were wondering why we were even invited up, and by the end of the visit there was unpleasantness), so we took the kids to the park.
The next morning we had a muffin cook-off.
Our plan for the rest of the day involved the ginormous amount of books to go through and then take to sell at Half Price Books.
After Half Price, we went to Cost-co to celebrate Pi day the cheap way.
Then we went back to the house for movies and a frantic search for my debit card.
In the evening before bed we had one final bit of happy Pi-ness:
Saturday we got up and drove over to McKinney for the Dallas UCG Regional Teen Weekend.
We had church and a Bible study earlier in the day, then in the evening there were separate dinners for the pre-teens/families and for the teens. After dinner, the teens had a dance and the pre-teens/families were left on their own for entertainment.
The next morning we got up and had breakfast back at the Heard Museum before going for a little hike on the nature trails.
After the trail (which the kids didn’t go on because it was FREEZING!), we headed out to Garland to the Skatium.
After the skating, we had one last meal together before we left for home.
And that was the end of our Spring Break. 🙂
I’m having trouble with the fact that it’s 2013 already for some reason. Most years I am quite happy to let the new year come, but this year just felt like it went by so slowly and quickly and unsatisfactorily that I can’t believe that it is over. So let’s catch up first on the end of 2012, ok? Great!
The last week of school before the break David came down with the flu, which of course quickly spread to me and I got bronchitis, too.
We had all kinds of obligations that week including D’s first band concert, which he missed, and the annual Christmas music recital, which we all missed, and class parties, which David missed and I was asked to leave when it came out that I was so sick (“But I’m the coordinator!” “Mrs. H, you are sick. Go home to bed. We’ll be all right!”), and we also missed a birthday party for Greg’s friend Asher which was End of the World themed for the Mayan Apocalypse (we have awesome friends, right?!), and our beloved Owen’s first birthday party was missed as well. I did manage to catch Greg’s Christmas program, though, which was super cute!
Our van also broke down the next-to-last day of school before the break. I was at Brookshire’s in my less-than-appropriate-for-the-weather pants when it happened. Fortunately my friend BR came and picked me up and took me and my supplies up to D’s school for his class party and then dropped me back at the van to await the tow truck. Then Nick rescued me and brought me back home to my sick David. (And then my van was gone until New Years Eve, due to one thing and another needing to be ordered. It was a ridiculously expensive experience.)
So Nick ended up driving us down to CS for Christmas. I slept through most of it. When I wasn’t sleeping, I was dozing in front of the television or feeding people. Seriously, I have no real memory of what went on other than A) gifts were given and received, B) I watched more bits of more random things than ever before in my life except when I had pneumonia, and C) I wore a Typhoid Mary name tag to Christmas Eve service at church. Cause my mom said I had to go and I’m wacky like that. Looking back at pictures, I see we played some games, made a gingerbread house, grew some crystal snowmen & trees, the kids scootered with the neighbor kids, my sister took them out to play basketball at the school, and my dad got them a giant remote controlled car to play with.
We eventually came home and found out that it had snowed while we were gone! There really was very little left, but the kids went outside and had a blast!
The kids spent the night with their Nana & Pa. Then we had dinner with our friends L & M, making pizzas and exchanging books. It was delightful.
Then next day Nick, David, and Greg left for Dallas for their Teen & Pre-teen Winter Weekend (a church event). Ben stayed with Nana & Pa, as he was still sick, and I had two whole days to myself. It was lovely. I spent one whole day reading than watching movies based on books I read. The next day I tried a whole bunch of things from Pinterest and posted them all just in time for the Pinterest Party some of my group of friends from church is having.
The next day was New Years Eve. We got the van back and I bought a few party supplies and the kids and I made a few decorations and we had a party at my parents house here in town. We stayed up late playing silly games (Apples 2 Apples is my current favorite) and tried to do fireworks in the rain and ate a whole bunch of junk food.
We did a countdown at 10pm for the younger kids, then had a toast and took everyone home. The younger kids went to bed, then we counted down the new year again with David watching the East Coast new years eve show. Then he went to bed and Nick fell asleep while I watched Sherlock and waited for it to be 2013 properly (I couldn’t stand any more of those stupid new year’s eve shows). It was a good night! In the morning we got up and went back over to my parents house for coffee and more games (we got my dad addicted to Settlers of Catan this year and even my mom will play it). Eventually they left to go back home to their other house. We spent the rest of the day trying to clean up and put away stuff from all the places we’d been and all the stuff we’d gotten.
Today feels like the first kind of real day of the new year. Although not exactly, as the kids are still out of school until Tuesday. Still, we’re working on our resolutions and playing with our new stuff. Tomorrow I’ll post about our resolutions and our family motto for the year. 🙂
When I first made my list earlier this month, I had no idea that I’d end up having the kind of week I have scheduled ahead of me. Monday I have a two-hour webinar for scouts, Tuesday I’m going to spend all day driving to and from Dallas with David, getting his back checked for scoliosis, Wednesday I have a half day playdate (planned for two weeks ago, then rescheduled) to catch up with a friend that I haven’t seen since my birthday last April, Thursday I’m going in to the hospital to have an EEG done to see if I’m having mini seizures, and Friday I’m having another catch-up playdate with a different friend (also rescheduled) who I thought I’d seen this month, but apparently haven’t yet.
Fortunately I’ve already done days 16 & 17. YAY. So today I’m going to try to get 13, 14, & 15 all done. Watch for updates. There should be some. You know, unless I fall over and hit my head or something. *sigh*
Update 1:
BEFORE:
Two hours later, I have emptied the entire desk-that-was-my-grandmothers (now referred to as the craft desk because that’s a less unwieldy phrase), taken stuff out, looked at it, pitched some of it in the trash, designated other bits -one entire drawer actually- for sale on ebay (anyone interested in some Stampin’ Up?), and moved another whole drawer over to another area, where I feel like I might feel more compelled to write notes & cards (since I won’t have to dig through the scary deep drawer to find them). I have also dug through the entire cart, following the same process as above, a drawer in the other cart, and the small three drawered cubby as well. I watched episode 1 & 2 of the first season of the UK version of Being Human while doing so. I say “watched” but listened was more like it. I wanted to see it because I liked the werewolf from when he was on Little Dorrit. I liked him here, too, which was unfortunate because the show is too bloody for me. 😦
Now the children are home, it’s lunch time, and we’re digging through drawer 2 of the second cart. We may have to stop to do tie-dye before we move on, since it takes up a lot of space and the children would rather we tie-dye today than throw it out unused. I agree with them. If only we had some white t-shirts. Off to check for shirt availability.
Update 2:
An hour later, Nick has gone off to work and I have finished emptying the second cart. Another trash can has been added, as the first one is FULL. The tie-dye did not pan out, as only one kid has a shirt available for it. The top of the desk is left to do, as is finding a home off the floor for all the paper products (which do not fit into the desk).
MIDWAY:
However, the day is still rain-free, the kids are awake and at liberty, so they are being drafted into “Day 15” and will help me carry heavy stuff in the garage. I can hear them discussing it amongst themselves right now. “We have to help her because she’s TIRED.” “We’ll carry the heavy stuff and then she’ll be happy and let us have screen time later.” They are SO RIGHT on both counts. (In other news, my bff read my earlier update & called & excused me from coming to her house this weekend, which was a relief because I was fairly certain I’d be dead by then. Two trips to DFW in one week do not make for a happy Lisa. On the other hand, I had wanted to see the Harry Potter party leftovers and love on her and her kids. Ah well, there will be time for that next month.)
Update 3:
Another hour later, because I’m about to pass out and this may be the last update of the day. The two younger kids have been very good helpers, as evidenced by the quotes above (you all knew that was Ben & Greg, right?). David got mad about 3 minutes in because I wouldn’t let him keep his large supply of sticks in the garage any longer. He left to take a giant bag of Lego bricks inside (why was it in the garage? no idea) and never came back out again. Greg and Ben helped me break down boxes, sort things into recycling bins (certain things can go in the one that goes out to the street that can’t go directly to the recycle center and vice versa) and the dumpster, and sort other things into whose room in the house they belonged to for once they go back inside. Now we have a couple bins of things that go back in the house, which worries me a bit. But the garage has been tidied up a reasonable amount, my trunk is full of more stuff for Goodwill, and in a few minutes it’ll also have been swept. And then I’m going to go lie down on the couch and watch The Secret of Moonacre again with Greg because it is a delightful movie and I am exhausted.
Update 4:
(Are you shocked?)
Well, another hour has gone by and I haven’t passed out yet. The kids didn’t want to watch a movie just yet. “It’s a lovely day, Mama!” And it is. Breezy, warm. Non-standard January weather. They wanted to ride bikes in front of the house. Sure, why not. Well, here’s why: we tidied the bikes into a figurative corner and couldn’t get them out without getting the van out of the garage. As long as the van was out and there was more space to move around in, why not reconfigure the garage so the bikes are easy to get to and the van seats (which rarely leave the garage these days) are less open to the elements? So the kids got their bikes out, I shifted the other stuff while they were riding, et voila! Now they can get to their bikes & helmets & padding on their own and I, thanks to some hooks hung on the wall to contain their never-used golf sets, have comfy seats inside the garage to watch the festivities from, out of the sun and elements. Wahoo!
BEFORE:
messy, hard to get around stuff
AFTER:
stuff we like to use front and center by the door, tidied up & purged of extras (except that small desk, which is destined for my in-laws house once their remodeling is complete, which will be soon)
(One day soon I hope to come up with better titles…we’ll see.)
Thursday last we had a double crazy day. I baked 6 dozen cookies over the course of the day, those yummy apple caramel cider ones I did last week, but this time with the chunk caramel rather than the bits. Oh what a difference the chunk caramel made! They went from yum to superextrayum! After the kids came home from school we decorated the cakes they baked the night before and that morning.
Ben’s cake:
David’s cake:
That night Nick took the kids to their cake auction while I went to a cookie exchange party at one of the newer neighbors houses. I didn’t know most of the people there, but the kids did enjoy playing together and I came home with some fabulous cookies. (photos to be added once I find them) Nick came home with some other kids cake, as he was outbid on our kids cakes. They totally loved that!
Friday was the quadrupaly crazy day. Ben had eaten one of the caramel chunk cookies without warming it first and his crown came out so he had to be taken into the dentist first thing in the morning. Also in the morning there was a concert at school for all the kids and parents that hadn’t gotten to see/be in the big performance the week before. My mom took Ben to the dentist and my dad, Greg, and I went to save seats at the concert. Ben and my mom got back before the concert started but too late to sit with us. David got to play his violin in public for the first time and did very well.
From there we went home and got some breakfast real fast before gathering stuff up for the class parties. I’m the homeroom mom coordinator for our PTA this year, so I’d spent the week contacting all the homeroom moms and their teachers, trying to make sure all the room parties were being taken care of and that people were all signed up to bring stuff. I brought a cartload of extras and put it in the school office in case anyone was lacking anything, as I had two parties of my own to help out with. Fortunately for me, the other moms involved in the parties were awesome, so I was able to run back and forth between the two parties a bit. While I was running around, I noticed this hanging in the bathroom:
Isn’t that amazing?!
Anyways, Ben’s party had bingo
and a Left/Right gift exchange (I wrapped extra gifts in case they were lacking some and passed them out to younger siblings afterwards).
David’s party made ice cream cone Christmas trees (idea from Pinterest, naturally)
and also played bingo (yes, Greg was everywhere all at once, too!)
It was a great afternoon, but I was exhausted and out of breath by the time I’d climbed all those stairs a half dozen times (sometimes I’d walk the extra distance and take the elevator, but it was pretty far away).
My parents picked us up straight from the time the bell rang and drove us down to Palestine for our annual trip to ride The Polar Express.
Mom and I dressed up in our robes for the event
The kids were likewise dressed in pajamas. This year it was freezing cold, so everyone wore their jackets, except Greg, who tried to live inside my robe.
Looking down at the train
Sitting together
The other half
Mr. Conductor came and punched our tickets. The kids continued to be sad that they weren’t punching words like in the movie. The elves came out and danced with Ben
and to our great surprise, David danced with her, too. (Even more surprising actually was that Greg said “no.”)
Hot chocolate
The North Pole. We decided to be nice and let another family that hadn’t been there before sit on the side with all the lights. 🙂
After the train ride we changed up tradition a little and ate dinner at Giovanni’s, which is right next door to Little Mexico (where we normally go).
We have no photos of Saturday at all. Aren’t you feeling happy about that by now?
Sunday Santa’s helper Elmer the Brownie visited our house. When he saw we were all decked out for the holidays, he brought us yummy cookies.
Monday we made some graham cracker houses (and used up all the leftover candy from the class parties).
Yesterday we got The Call and left for College Station a day early, thinking that Steph’s baby was on his way. Sadly, he wasn’t yet (she was more than a week over due), but we did get in a little visit today and she opened his present from us (which was partly something to be used on Christmas day). Tomorrow I’ll post some more pictures. Aren’t you excited?
The first Thursday of the month with had a playdate after school with Greg’s pal E. and his brothers. We had 7 kids amongst two moms. It was great!
The next day we had a playdate at DSP with Greg’s friend Kya. There were only 6 kids amongst 3 moms this time. 😉 I’m always amused at the numbers, I don’t know why. They had all sorts of new stuff at DSP since the last time we went there, including robotic surgery arms, a new pretend restaurant, and a pretend courthouse building. The kids did not want to play in the courthouse, they wanted to play grocery and restaurant instead. 🙂
Later that day we drove on down to College Station. We ate out at Cotton Patch Cafe (bad decision, such a long wait) and settled in. The next morning we took the kids out to the new skateboard park. We didn’t have skateboards, but we did bring the scooters and they absolutely LOVED it. All the ups and downs were enthralling to them. We have nothing like it in Tyler, as far as I know. They didn’t ever want to leave. They’ll probably go back again this morning as soon as they can drag someone out the door. 
Last night my dad and Nick had a whisky tasting. (In case you’re new here, I’ll mention that they do a couple a year, one in College Station so they can invite my Dad’s friends from the University and one in Tyler so we can invite our friends.) I spent all afternoon helping to clean and set up and getting food ready (I must have dipped about 50 strawberries in chocolate), but before it started I took the kids and headed out to Steph’s house for the evening.
Here’re the pictures I took before I left:
We had a great time at Steph’s. She ordered pizzas for us and we got to try fancy homemade ice cream. We boggled at the entirely empty nursery. Our friend Sarah also came over with her baby. Sadly I didn’t get many photos at Steph’s house, as I left the camera at my parents house thinking they’d take pictures during the tasting (no, no they didn’t). The best one was this one:
Anyways, I have a big day ahead of me with Steph’s baby shower. It’s way too early in the morning, but I’m already jittery and excited about it. Must go shopping as soon as the stores open. Smile
It has been a sincerely and completely crazy week. I’m not even going to try to tell all of it, that’s how insane it’s been.
Monday we wrote in our workbooks, ran Zhu-zhu & Kung Zhu hamsters all over the house, made food in the Easy Bake oven, looked up recipes to make reasonably priced food in the Easy Bake Oven, and generally stayed in our pajamas until it was long past time to be out of them.
Tuesday we did more of the same, but this time ventured out to a Post Holiday Jollies party at Double Daves with my former MOPS friends. 
The kids ran around like crazy, the adults ate far too much in an attempt to recomp some of the money we spent on food the kids weren’t eating, and we generally laughed a lot and agreed that Christmas is totally ridiculous. A good time was had by all. 🙂
Wednesday we got up and after a couple false starts drove to Ft. Worth for D’s orthopedic visit. We got completely turned around at some point (bad directions, yay) and ended up getting to our appointment with only 4 minutes to spare, which was agonizing, as we’d left more than an hour of leeway in our schedule. My friend Kay watched the younger two at the park (along with her two) while I took D in to the doctor alone. He had his xrays done, his legs measured four ways (on a block, on the xray, with a measuring tape by hand, and another way I’ve forgotten now), and we got the whole hemihypertrophy schpiel again, as the med student in with us had never heard of it. The doctor reassured us that despite D’s “deformity” (his word, not mine), he was actually in really good shape and did I read any hemihypertrophy blogs or belong to any forums? I tried not to laugh at that. (For a really long time I was one of the top three hits on Google for hemihypertrophy) I explained that I had at one time, but really it got to be too much. The doctor said that D’s leg length difference is getting worse, not better, and that we need to keep coming back at 6 month intervals to keep an eye on it to make sure it’s not damaging his pelvis or his spine or anything. When he’s around 15 (sooner, if it keeps growing too fast), they’ll have to break his growth plate on the one leg so the other can catch up. I’m hoping that the health industry comes up with a better answer by then, as that sounds incredibly painful and time consuming and what 15 year old boy wants to take a time out from life for something like that?! Aie. Anyway, after the appointment, we went back to Kay’s parents (now Kays home as well, but they have two houses at the moment and it gets confusing) house and took the kids on an adventure and let the play games and fed them multi-colored pancakes for dinner. I think Kay has better photos than I do, but I will post those when I see her next. 
Thursday I spent in pain because of all the driving I’ve been doing lately. Yay, pain. D and B each had friends over to play video games. G’s friends couldn’t make it, due to illness (argh), but B & his friend let him play Mario Kart & Wii Music with them, so he was pretty happy anyway.
New Year’s Eve day we spent running errands with Nick. We got fireworks for a future display (once the burn ban is over, I’ve been chanting this for months) and other stuff that required a trip out towards Nick’s parents house. Hung out there for a while with his dad. We had a big surprise over something that I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about yet, nothing family related, exactly, but something big we’re still talking over and making decisions about.
For the evening festivities, Nick made a whole lot of German food (sauerbrauten, red cabbage and apples, caramelized onions, etc) and
I made a lot of decorations that said 2011 and poppers for the kids. 
My parents came over to eat and celebrate.
The kids got to do both my kind of poppers (with candy inside) and the more explosive kind (confetti explosion) and smoke bombs and sparklers. We had a bit of dancing in the living room and then an early countdown to the new year for the kids. Actually, for everyone. 
My parents left right after that and Nick and I decided we’d had enough for the day and went to bed, too. 🙂
New Years Day was a Saturday and therefore a church day, but therein lies the madness, so we ended up going to services at two different churches. Like I said, not something I’m up for discussing at the moment, but it did take up all the day and into the evening. We had dinner at my parents house here in town, with the two D’s making us the Crazy Cantina Chili from the original Star Wars Cookbook. It turned out all right, kind of like Taco Soup, but without the meat (my dad threw some in at the end to fill it out a bit).
Yesterday we took the kids out for basketball practice, but there weren’t many kids there. They had fun, though.
We spent the afternoon at home doing necessary cleaning type stuff. I set up a Kids Command Center in their hallway with all their important info like calendars, lunch menus, emergency numbers, chore lists with dry erase markers, etc. I’ll do a post about that and the art we made today as well sometime tomorrow.
Anyway, hope everyone is having a very pleasant new year so far. 🙂
We’ve had about 5 Thanksgivings this year. I am full up to the brim with turkey and may die if I have to have it again this year.
Our first Thanksgiving was on Nov 17th at Nick’s work. Greg and I were only bringing stuff up to Nick, but we got invited to stay, so we did. There were lots of non-Thanksgiving-like foods (7 layer taco dip, mac&cheese, broccoli/cheese casserole) there, so we mostly got some of those, so as not to kill ourselves too early in the series.
On Nov 18th was G’s MDO Thanksgiving event. I admit here that I totally missed it. I completely forgot it was happening. Really all they did was watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and eat popcorn, so it’s not like I missed much. Here’s a picture I took afterwards of him in his “Native American” vest.
Nov 19th we spent washing & packing for our trip to Austin for Real Thanksgiving(tm) at April’s house. We drove down first thing Saturday morning and spent the day there eating and eating and then watching the A&M vs. UNL game (it’s very trippy to watch that with someone who formerly worked at UNL and now works at TAMU all while in Austin, it really is). I have zero pictures of that event because I still didn’t have my camera cord in yet. I took tons of photos on my sisters camera, but she didn’t have an internet connection to upload to, so the photos are stuck there until Christmas. *sigh* Sunday we got up, ate a really huge breakfast, divvied up the leftovers, then hit Whole Foods for more goodies before heading back home.
Nov 22nd-24th it was just me and all three kids at home. We cleaned out their room, top to bottom, including all their dresser drawers and closet messes. We weeded out anything that was stained or had holes or just wasn’t loved. We ended up keeping only about 1/3 of G’s clothes, 1/2 of B’s and nearly all of D’s (he had the least). One day we spent literally half the day at the zoo.
Another day we picnicked in the living room.
Actual Thanksgiving Day we got up and played Macy’s Parade Bingo while watching said parade. Around 12:30pm our guests arrived. We’d asked at church who didn’t have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving and so we ended up hosting a nice couple that we hadn’t met before. They weren’t able to visit family because of work and their family that was supposed to come was unable to due to recovery from a car accident, so we all had the meal together. Nick fixed his favorite new recipes from all those Thanksgiving shows that we’ve watched over the years. 98% of it was great. The remaining 2% was edible, just a bit watery. We had a fabulous time and now have two new fiends at church. 🙂
Friday we stayed home. The kids watched movies and played outside. Nick watched football games. I cleaned up messes and did laundry and played with kids. It was a good day, too. We ended the day with the house just as clean as it was before the guests arrived and I’ve managed to keep it up that way every since. Saturday Nick taught Sabbath school to the younger kids.
That night we had yet another Thanksgiving type meal at Nick’s parents house (though we call it the Holcomb Anniversary Dinner). The kids had fun running around with their cousins and roasting marshmallows on the fire. The rest of us had fun talking and eating. We had a family picture taken of just our little family and another one of the extended family (although not on my camera; I need to get a copy of that still).
Sunday we spent recovering and eating yet more leftovers. Now it’s the last day of November and I refuse to eat any more leftover Thanksgiving. Bwahahaha.
Lisa Holcomb 
