Thanksgiving

Well, I hope you all had as lovely a Thanksgiving as I did! Mine was nice and relaxing and was filled with plenty of yummy food, wonderful family, and lots of laughs. :)

Dave's nephew, Kyle, spent Tuesday night with us and had a great time wrestling on the floor with Dave and Aaron and just goofing off as one of the boys. When he woke up Wednesday am he asked for chocolate chip pancakes, which is what he ate for breakfast last time he spent the night. He and Aaron stocked up on their morning ration of sugar then played it off while I got the house straightened, made sure Belle stayed out of trouble, etc..., blah, blah, blah..... Then after lunch (while Belle was safely confined to her crib for naptime :)) the boys made cupcakes for the holiday. They had a great time and made a huge mess, but I was able to overlook it (which is hard for me to do since I am OCD with things like that) and they were looking forward to serving them to the rest of their cousins at our Thanksgiving get-together on Saturday for the Casamento Clan. (I will post pictures later, once I download them).

Then Wednesday evening we went to our church for the Thanksgiving Eve Service. It was so nice! It was very informal, we sat in the Fellowship Hall and drank tea and coffee while eating cookies, and shared how/what God has blessed us with in the past year. I am so very thankful for the people in my church. They are so open and honest! A refreshing change! We attend a small church but God has done big things in it and through it and the people who attend there as well. Most were moved to tears at some point or another. We have a former drug/alcohol addict, a man who was in a terrible accident a few years ago and is paralyzed, people with children who are unmarried and have children, people who are imperfect, sick people, those in constant pain, jobless, etc... and through it all they are able to praise God for what He has done and how He has gotten them through the last year. It was very uplifting and wonderful!

Thursday morning we woke up and my dear hubby made a delicious breakfast of Peach Cobbler before I had to make the dishes I was assigned to take to my Aunt's house for dinner. (Mashed potatoes and corn- wow. Notice the excitement? ) I had made several desserts on Wednesday to take over so those were all ready to go and the potatoes and corn didn't take too long so it was pretty nice, but still, they are boring dishes. Anyway, we packed everything up and went to my aunts with her family, my parents and my brother and his family. Usually all my famikly from the Eastern Shore is over too but since they couldn't make it this year it was much quieter and roomier. :) We ate and laughed all day! Belle enjoyed her first Thanksgiving and all the food that comes with it. She filled her growing belly and then took a nice long nap which meant that I could relax with the family for most of the day. Eddie was telling us about his neighbors, work stories, etc... and it was great to be able to spend time with him and Jenn since they've been quite busy with moving lately. Let me take a minute to explain something about my mom. When we tell jokes or something, if she doesn't get it, she gets this look that comes over her face like "whhhaaat?" or if it is something "risque" or whatever, her eyes get really big, the eyebrows go up, and she sucks all the air out of the room with her gasp as she opens her mouth really wide! It is quite funny and when it takes a minute for her to get a joke, we can actually count back from 3 until she gets it. Well, needless to say that with Ed, Jenn, me and Dave in the room that happened a few times that day. I think the best time was when Ed was saying how "unfortunate looking" his neighbor is and then mentioned that the neighbor has a child. Jenn's response was "Well, he obviously got some play" and as we all laughed we could watch Mom's reaction go from "What?" to "!!!" in 3 seconds. It was quite funny! I think we laughed harder at mom's reaction than the actual line, but both were pretty funny! We came home later that evening and my cousin Brittany came over to spend the night and go shopping with me and Sara for Black Friday. My favorite friday! :)

We got to Starbucks at 4:15 and were at Old Navy by 4:45am. Oh, yes, be jealous, I was one to get a free mp3 player! Suckas! After a fun spree at ON, we moved on to Marley Station Mall where we hit up Victorias Secret, (woohoo!) Bath and Body Works, New York and Co, and the smelly bathroom in JC Penneys since I had a bladder with an apparent hole in it that day. Then it was off to Bob Evans for breakfast with a nice older waitress who made fun of herself and was quite funny. Then I convinced Sara and Britt to go to Target where I was able to finish Belle's Christmas shopping and get a few other misellaneous things. Once we were done there, we decided to stop by and visit my Dad at work. We stood outside talking to him while Brittany got back into the car to sleep since she was so tired. (Dad thought it was funny that the youngest one in the group and the only one with no kids, was the most tired!) I took Brittany back to my house where she took a nice nap while I spent some time with Dave and the kids before Belle went to bed and then Dave took Aaron out to run a few errands. I tried to take a nap but was not very successful. I only got about 45 minutes I think, but it was enough to get through till the end of the evening. I made a yummy chicken and broccoli wreath for dinner, went to youth group and then totally crashed after the kids went to bed. Whew! It was a realxing but BUSY time!

Saturday was busy too, I had a morning meeting, food to make, nieces over to spend the night and then a family dinner at Dave's parents house with his brothers and their families. By the time we got home Saturday night I was sooooooo ready for peace and quiet!

I was hoping to rest up a bit on Sunday but that never really happened and then the next thing I knew, it was Monday morning and it was up early to meet the family for breakfast and the Christmas tree cutting! Woohoo! We had a great time and I am hoping to get the tree up tonight. I love it when it is dark out and the only light on in the house is the tree. I tried to bribe Dave by saying if he gets the tree up tonight I'll make chocolate chip cookies. Mmmmmmm, yummy!

Happy Thursday to you all!