Thankful

We flew by the seat of our pants last week which I guess is no different than any other week except last week included this little holiday called Thanksgiving!  Our original plan was to stay home and not battle the other holiday travelers.  I was going to make Thanksgiving dinner and we were going to have a quiet four day weekend at home.  Of course none of this ended up happening but everything worked out in the end and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Keith ended up staying in Houston longer than expected and we decided that we would go see him in Houston if he hadn't been discharged by Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving.)  Wednesday afternoon came and he hadn't yet been released (not to mention I had not purchased one item for our Thanksgiving dinner...) so we packed up for an overnight trip and headed to Houston.  The stress over it about put me over the edge but we had a lot of angels come together and take care of some of the planning.

And Thanksgiving dinner? Well, we were grateful for an invitation to David's Aunt Barbara and Uncle Perry's house (who live north of Houston) for dinner.  We couldn't have asked for a better day.  My in-laws and brother-in-law were also at Thanksgiving dinner and they took care of the kids while we drove downtown to see Keith at MD Anderson Cancer Center.  We were also able to visit with Ray, David's grandmother's husband, who just had double bypass surgery.  Both were doing quite well especially given that they had to be in the hospital on Thanksgiving.

After visiting we headed back to Conroe where we had quite the meal.  Many thanks (again and again) to our wonderful family who took care of us on Thanksgiving and allowed us to go be with Keith during this difficult time.  The meal was fantastic and I am sure I ate my weeks worth of calories in one sitting! And Uncle Matt kept his favorite nephew busy most of the day with playing and dinosaur videos on his phone.  (Thank you everyone!)

We arrived home safely on Thanksgiving evening around 11:00 pm and the kids went straight to bed.  Friday brought a day of fishing for the boys and one of my favorite activities... decorating for Christmas :)  As I put the tree up I remembered how much I love the smell and imperfections of a fresh-cut Christmas tree. But one thing separates a real tree from a fake one and these six little letters make me do the happy dance: Pre-lit.  That's right, our pre-lit artificial tree makes me so happy.  I threw that baby together in five minutes flat, plugged it in and voila - a Christmas tree!  It's the simple things in life. 

Hannah admiring the tree

She loves picking out the ornaments with "babies" on them.

Excited!

I'm pretty proud of myself because I am nearly done with our Christmas shopping.  The kids presents are hiding in our spare bedroom and I have attempted putting everyone else's gifts under the tree.  Of course this means that the kids are fascinated with the gifts and Blaine has asked at least five times since yesterday what is in each box.  So, if Blaine tells you what we got you - it's not true! :)  Hannah is mostly obsessed with the "balls" (ornaments) and has only taken two off.  But none are shattered... yet. 

Speaking of obsessed, check this out:

Yes, that is our daughter with TWO ba-bas in her mouth.  Breaking this habit is going to be hard!

In other news, we are extremely proud of Blaine today.  The YMCA we belong to has a water slide and a water obstacle course (on the weekends) but kids have to pass a swim test to be able to use these features.  Blaine has wanted to do these things since we joined one year ago.  To pass the test kids have to be able to swim from one end of the pool to the other by themselves.  Last night when David took Blaine to the pool he passed!   YAY!  He was thrilled and we spent most of today at the pool to celebrate.  Nice job, buddy.

This is part of the pool.  Blaine swam from one end to the other by himself!

See the yellow slide back there... That is B's new best friend.

Given all that happened yesterday, it was probably one of my favorite days ever.  Why?

1. Michigan Football.  Not only Michigan football... but the Michigan, OSU game... and the boys whooped 'em!  Hail!

2. Christmas decorating.

3. Wrapping Christmas presents.

4.  Baking.

5.  It rained, Y'all.  It rained for almost 4 hours straight.  This had to be the highlight of my day.

And the kids thought I was totally crazy screaming at the TV while the game was on.  Hannah was yelling "Gooo Booo" ("Go Blue" for you Texans) and Blaine was (of course) fascinated with the players tackling each other and asked me, "Mama, did you play that game when you went to that school?"  To which I replied, "No, baby, Mama was too busy going to class."  LOL!

Other than all of that, it really was a low-key weekend.