This and That

The past week has been a little crazy here at the Litwiller homestead and my time on the computer has been limited until today. Rob had his big paper to work on and submitted it last night at 11:30, one half-hour prior to the deadline. I don't like tiptoeing around his books and things to get to the computer, so I pretty much avoid the whole area. I took the kids to a variety of places and we did all kinds of window shopping, pricing, playing games at the library, and even took a driving trip to the McDonald's drive-thru in a neighboring town. I'm very thankful he's finished and we get Daddy for the rest of the holidays. Well, that is unless he's reading for classes....

Rob has this week off work so we have some family things planned. As I'm typing, the boys are having their first Litwiller Men Sleepover. Mommy and Anna have been banished from the living room and the guys are doing manly things like playing in the snow after dark, boxing on the Wii, eating cheese curds at Culver's, working in the woodshop, eating homemade Chex Mix, eating popcorn (catch the theme here?), and will end their evening by sleeping in sleeping bags in the living room. Rob thought about sneaking upstairs and sleeping in his bed, but I told him that was cheating :)

To avoid all of the manly events, Anna and I went out for supper at Upper Krust where I had a chicken salad sandwich and she snubbed applesauce. (We're still working on the solids. She WILL feed herself now and did eat carrots.) We then went to Wal-Mart and purchased a few Christmas decorations for our new tree. She was a good baby and even went to bed early. I'll spend the rest of my evening working on Christmas cards in the study.

Tomorrow we are spending the day together, just the five of us. I was going to make the 60-minute Thanksgiving meal featured in Rachael Ray's magazine but we're going to amend the turkey and the dessert. Her turkey calls for just breast and leg, which costs about the same as a whole turkey, so Rob will cook the bird. He loves it and always has done a great job. The dessert was a Pumpkin Mousse Trifle which looked pretty nasty to us, so we're opting for a Sara Lee pumpkin pie. The side dishes will remain the same: Apple-Date stuffing, Mashed Potatoes with Yukon golds and sweet potatoes, and a Green Bean casserole with REAL mushroom sauce and fresh beans. We're all excited around here. Oh, and I'm adding homemade rolls to the deal. Just can't have a big dinner without the rolls!

We're planning to decorate for Christmas in the evening. We have two trees to put up this year, the big one Rob's parents got us last year and our Charlie Brownish tree that will be the kids tree and will sit on our landing. I love decorating for Christmas and can't wait to use ornaments that have remained boxed up for years. I couldn't use them b/c they would make our old tree fall over.....so sad and pathetic!!

Not much too new with the kids. Anna is still cute, Ben is still practicing going potty, and Matthew still chatters like a monkey to everyone he sees. His new thing is asking people if they have a big, fat, plump turkey defrosting in their fridge. He keeps saying ours looks yummy but I can't say as I'm too excited about raw turkey :)

That's all for now! Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!