Thanksgiving 2010

We just got back from our whirlwind trip to visit the relatives for this Thanksgiving. I'm rather tired as I write and I'd have to say I might not remember everything that happened since I spent much of my time in a tired stupor. I haven't slept well for over a week now and sleeping in "foreign" beds doesn't help much. But we did manage to have a good time in spite of my sleepiness.

Our first stop was at the Fulkerson household. Rob got off work a little earlier on Wednesday so we could begin our journey before the bad weather hit. Our trip was pretty good and uneventful. We didn't even hit much traffic. I had purchased five Patch the Pirate CD's for an early Christmas present, so the kids had a good time listening to them. (On sale at Majesty Music right now--one of the CD's was $5 and one was free!) Mom was at home to greet us.

My brother Joel, sister Mandy and their families joined us on Thursday. We had a great spread of food. My mom was raised southern, so there is always more food than can feed a small army at family gatherings. Fine by me...lots of little tastes of all my favorites! We had a marshmallow fight in the afternoon and both of my boys agreed it was the highlight of the whole trip.

Thursday night we took off for Normal to visit Rob's family. I poured over the Black Friday ads that night and found one store that had what I wanted for Anna's Christmas present cheaper than anywhere I had found it. So, Rob and I took off at 5am to do a little shopping the next day. It was the easiest Black Friday shopping I've ever done! In and out of the store in about 20 minutes, then home to finish our shopping on-line. I took a nap afterwards, of course :)

We had a wonderful dinner with Rob's family. We all visited for a bit afterwards, then headed to his brother's house for our nephew's first birthday party. We had a fun time seeing him smear icing everywhere and get lots of great presents. Then we took the kids to Hobby Lobby to just kick around for a bit, then back to Grandpa and Grandma's. The kids and I all went to bed early that night and my sweet husband even slept on the couch in an effort to see if I could get some sleep. I woke up several times, but at least I went back to sleep easily. Anna woke up crying at one point b/c she had become uncovered, but nothing major.

We had a nice breakfast this morning then we left for home. We made a few stops here and there and got home with plenty of time to spare before the Parade of Lights. It's our favorite parade of the year! They turn the lights off downtown and all of the floats are decorated with lights. Anna was given a teddy bear and a glow necklace, they all got tons of candy, but Ben made out like a bandit. He was given a stuffed dragon, a teddy bear, a Hot Wheels car, and a glow necklace! He graciously gave his teddy bear to Matthew. Ben has gotten at least two if not three big items at each parade we go to! He's just a magnet for free stuff, I guess.

Our tree is now up, but not yet decorated. I'm too tired to direct the children yet, so we'll save that task for tomorrow afternoon. Right now Rob is bathing them and putting them to bed in preparation for a busy Sunday :)