The past week

Wow, I really should blog a little more often. It's been over a week, but this has been the most consistent I've ever been with blogging. Last week was Thanksgiving. What a fantastic week, minus the exhaustion I had at the end of the week. I had the carpet in the house cleaned Tuesday; that's a whole 'nother story in itself. Suffice it to say that it's clean and I paid more than I planned on. Tuesday night was the community-wide Thanksgiving meal at church. There were many faces I did not recognize that were there, so many people from the surrounding area, not just the church. Lots of food, but not much left over. Wednesday was another crazy day with having to pick up milk and starting on Christmas shopping for the kids and giving blood. Fortunately, my kids were with the in-laws and I could do all that stuff by myself. My parents arrived Wednesday afternoon with my nephew. Later in the day, my brother, his wife, and their daughter arrived. It was a fun time from the minute they stepped in the door. (The baby had pooped out her clothes and had to be put in the bathtub to get cleaned off AND my brother had to take care of her because my SIL can't lift her right now). All that was taken care of and I decided to start cooking for Thursday...just the cornbread for dressing. My cornbread mix was old. Like 2 years old. So, I throw it in the trash and make a late night run to Food Lion. My brother went with me and we got to catch up with each other.

Thursday was great. I love having a house full of people. We missed Phil and Beth and their kids, though. I woke up at 5:45 Thursday morning and was wide awake, so I went ahead and got up and baked pumpkin bread for breakfast. The turkey went in as soon as the bread came out. Couldn't find the giblets, though. Apparently they were hiding in the neck cavity. I'll know where to look next time. Got all the food cooking in the time frame I planned...almost. I didn't prep some of it before time to put it in the oven, so that threw my schedule off a bit. I also, after looking at the cornbread and consulting with my brother, decided that we didn't have enough cornbread for dressing. So, we made some more. We had a great time eating and conversing and just being with each other. Kristin opened birthday presents right before we ate. We sang to her and had strawberry shortcake after lunch. Everyone left before evening except my parents, who were spending the night.

Friday morning saw me taking Clayton to work after I stayed up until midnight reading. I decided to start making use of the Kindle app on my phone and have since discovered that I actually like reading on it. After I got home from taking him and stopping at Target for coffee and something else that I can't remember and breakfast from Chick-Fil-A, we got the Christmas tree and decorations out. My parents left for Atlanta and the kids and I put up the tree and decorated it. I got an hour nap before it was time to get Clayton from work so we could head to Atlanta ourselves. We made decent time to Jason and Allison's house and we actually met them at Jim & Nick's for supper. Good food and fellowship. Got to their house after eating and Allison's sisters, brother-in-law, nieces, and nephew showed up to decorate cupcakes and presumably to play games. Yeah, the game part didn't happen. They finished decorating cupcakes sometime just before midnight. Hilarity ensued not long after everyone got there, mostly on my part. I was so tired that just about everything was funny. I laughed so hard I cried...at what I have no idea.

Saturday was my niece's one-year-old birthday party. We had lunch and cupcakes. All in all, a good time with family...even if I had a headache and was exhausted. I actually slept on the way home from Atlanta and it didn't take me long to go to sleep at all. I went to bed fairly early Saturday night and took a nap Sunday afternoon and went to bed early Sunday night. I skipped a meeting and church Sunday (night) in order to get rest. I woke up this morning feeling much better.

We had a great week, but I'm glad it's over now.