Thanksgiving

Another good turkey day in the books with our little turkeys. Ellie slept over at Gigi's on Wednesday night - she packed for her trip upon waking up Tuesday morning and told EVERYONE about how great it was going to be. Sara had to work the morning of Thanksgiving, so Ellie had Gigi and Grizz all to herself, for the making and eating of pancakes, a trip to the park, and some time spent baking cookies and prepping side dishes. She was in absolute hog heaven. The day before she and Adam helped me put together two pecan pies, though I sent Tim and Adam to the park when I worked on my mushroom cheesy bake, which turned into a pretty sweet solo dance party in the kitchen, I must say.

We forced them both to take naps, because we are cruel overlords, and then did the grand tour of Southern California. A quick stop off at Gigi's was perfectly timed with Grandma Rosie on Skype, so we got to say our hellos to her, and she got admire Tim and Adam in their matching Favre jerseys (which I bought back when Favre was actually a Packer, and years before we ever had any babies.) Then we stopped by Jan's so that we could see her grandson, who Ellie has never met, but much enjoyed, and eat a bunch of her appetizers like the vultures we are. Then a final load up for the drive out to Yorba Linda. Ellie was a little sad that none of the other young cousins were there, but she took an instant shine to cousin Mary, who seemed pleased with her task of being in charge. I mean, she's taller than me now, it seems reasonable to just give over control of the five year old. Jake was obviously then put in charge of Adam. Seemed like a smaller gathering than usual, but the food was good and the company was great, and of course, Ellie forced everyone to have a dance party against their will. Even the college boys cannot resist her telling them to do the chicken dance. Tim, Debbie and I also tried to teach everyone how to polka. We stayed late, and then the kids were both insane when we got them home and once again tried to put them in their beds.

Today has been more low key, though a lot more whining. We were able to go get our Christmas tree, which was a huge hit with the kids. And since we have to move the car seats into Tim's car to put the tree in mine, I got a chance to vacuum out the interior, which was a good job done. Many rogue Cheerios found and destroyed. I went on a run while the kids were napping, and when I got home Ellie had already started decorating with abandon. She was so cute - I gave her the manger scene and asked her to cool her heels long enough for me to shower, and she got it all set up and was THRILLED to unveil it to me a few minutes later - turns out she's actually tall enough to arrange it on the mantle! And she remembered that the cow lives on the roof. Which, if it doesn't seem obvious to you, recheck your Biblical history. I'm pretty sure it's in there.

We had a pizza party with some neighbor friends tonight, which ended with the kids being totally bat crap insane! I had to tell Ellie at bed time that if they'd all been able to calm down and stop throwing themselves over and off the couch, we could have stayed longer. It was like some sort of WWE wrestling match in the play room, and Adam delighted in trying to climb the stairs... from the other side of the stair rail. Thanks kids! You're acting like total savages! This is why we can't have nice things! But they came home and put on their elf jammies, and insisted on having their bed time books read to them in front of the tree. Ellie kissed it before she went to bed. I can't blame her. I've been sitting in the Pretty Room all afternoon, just enjoying the lights. And I love that a lot of the neighbors have been decorating their houses today. But still not enough to go to the effort of putting lights on my own house, you understand.