Even though I'm not responsible for Thanksgiving dinner, preparing for the holiday takes time and energy a single day doesn't usually require. Here's the rundown on my Thanksgiving week:
11/19 – Put on my game face and strapped on the elbow pads before venturing out to the grocery store. I knew if I put it off another day, the lines would only get longer and the shoppers would only get crankier. I completed my ingredient list for the yummy Apple Cider Spice cake I was baking for my Thursday contribution.
11/20 – Began cleaning my apartment, knowing how nice it is to come home to a clean house after being away for a few days. I had barely begun before being distracted by a book I wanted to finish. Next thing I know it's 11:30 p.m. – way too late to use the vacuum, run the dishwasher, and start laundry. But I'd finished my book!! The evening wasn't a total waste.
11/21 – Tonight I bathed my dog, Abby, in anticipation for her visit to my parents house. A clean dog makes a much nicer house guest than a dirty one. She's a very tolerant bather, but even without her resistance, she's still 62 pounds of dog and is hard to strong-arm. Not to mention how hard it is to suppress her urge to shake! I accomplished a lot Wednesday night, bathing Abby, packing, cleaning, and baking my cake.
11/22 – Happy Thanksgiving! I drove the 110 miles south to my parents' home in Springfield, dog in tow. Our group was small this year, just my parents, my younger sister Jaylyn, and a friend from her church ward, Jenny. Oh, and two dogs. Abby and my sister's dog, Maggie, got along fine. Abby desperately wanted to engage and play with Maggie but Maggie didn't want much to do with Abby. I was worried that part of the visit wouldn't go well, but the dogs were completely fine with one another. Dinner was delicious! Thanksgiving was everything I wanted it to be. Lazy, relaxing, and low-key. No family gathering is complete (no matter how small the group) without playing games. We played Catch-Phrase after dinner and had fun teasing each other about our clue-giving skills!
11/23 – We observed Black Friday with some early-morning shopping. Jaylyn and Mom were out-of-control and out of the house by 5. I met them a little after 6 as I am utterly unable to rise any earlier. Though, my older sister gets the crazy award for leaving to shop with her sister-in-law before 4. Granted, when you have kids I imagine it's even greater incentive to take advantage of all the sales. But why even go to bed? After shopping for a few hours, I returned home to shower and recharge before picking Jaylyn up at work so we could catch an afternoon showing of Enchanted. She and I hit another couple of stores after the movie, got home in time for dinner and I was asleep on the couch by 9. Upstairs in bed by 10. Such excitement!
11/24 – Tried to sleep in, but when Abby heard the rest of the house waking up she became restless. Sometime during the night she jumped up on the bed with me where I found her curled up at my feet the next morning and I knew it was silly to think I could ignore her and continue sleeping. After breakfast, I watched a little football with my dad before the two of us began working on my car. Well, really he did the work and I held the screws and observed. I needed to replace some lights which ended up requiring the dismantling of a large portion of the dashboard. But thanks to my dad I can now see how fast I'm going when driving at night! Thanks, Dad. It was with great satisfaction we put it all back together without any leftover parts. After that we watched a very disappointing Oregon game and then I drove back home to Portland.
All-in-all it was a very enjoyable holiday! I hope yours was good as well.
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