Thanksgiving Week

Last week was quite a week to celebrate thankfullness- each  day of the week held new reasons to be thankful.

Our school district had school on Monday and Tuesday of last week. Bummer for me since I am doing a long term sub job right now. Many school districts had the entire week off; I tried to console myself by thinking that everything washes out day wise in the end- schools are required by law to have a certain number of days in the year. For a district like ours that had school on Monay and Tuesday, that should mean we have days off a different time of the year. Right?? That is what I told myself as I lugged my tired self out of bed super early on Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday, almost as soon as I arrived home from school, I got back in the car to pick up Abby for Thanksgiving break. The timing worked out really well because Abby wasn't free until late afternoon. It was so good to see Abby. She was happy to have her first break that was more than one school day off. 

Alyssa was supposed to go to school on Tuesday (per our school district having school) but I didn't make her go. She was supposed to be going on a field trip to the local vocational school.  Visiting the vocational school is great for students who are considering going to it when they are juniors or seniors but Alyssa is not considering going to it so it seemed pointless for her to go to school. She ended up having a sleepover and then had a fun day on Tuesday hanging out with her friend who spent the night and then hanging out with Abby when her friend left. I'm so glad the vocational school field trip was scheduled for Tuesday... When I arrived home from work, the girls and I did a little shopping at our local flea market. 

Wednesday was my first day of break and how I treasured it so... I was able to run errands, relax and Abby and I saw House of Gucci in the afternoon. It was the first time I had been in a theater since before the pandemic. I didn't stay away because I was afraid of Covid or anything like that. I have never been a prolific movie theater attendee and then for a while all of our theaters were closed due to most businesses being forced to close and then when they opened, no new movies played. On top of that, my favorite theater didn't make it; it failed to open when businesses were allowed to open again. Anyway, Abby and I went to Lebanon to the small theater there (it is not a chain theater) to support it. Unfortunately, the popcorn was a little disappointing (and that is the main reason for me to go to a movie!!) and the theater was super cold. Abby and I went out to the car where I keep a blanket and we brought that back in to the theater to keep us warm. Fortunately, the movie was good. Abby really likes Adam Driver who plays one of the main characters.  After the movie, we went to Aldi in Lebanon to get a few more items for our Thanksgiving meal and for the weekend. 

Ah, movie theater popcorn... it had been so long... and sadly it was disappointing.

They didn't mess the pop up, I will give them that. 

When Abby and I arrived home, Jacob had just arrived home from Cincinnati. Donnie arrived home from work shortly after that. We were all in good moods due to our respective breaks. Donnie doesn't take many breaks from work. He hasn't taken two work days off in a row since we went to Florida over spring break. He was really looking forward to a little bit of downtime. I don't remember what we all did Wednesday evening but whatever it was, it was with happy hearts, lol. I think the boys watched a movie. Abby and I went on a walk at some point because the weather was mild. 

I had actually slept in a little (until about 6:00 am) on Wednesday and was hoping to sleep in even more on Thursday. It was not to be! My slumber was interrupted by that distinct sound that is the garbage truck rumbling up on our street. Whaaaat? On Thanksgiving? Our garbage does come on Thursdays...unless it's a holiday... unless it's this year apparently. We didn't have our garbage or recycling bins out because we thought the trucks were coming on Friday. I bounded out of bed and raced downstairs to the garage to get the bins out. I just got them to the end of the driveway when the garbage truck rolled up to our house. By then, I was wide awake so I made the most of it and went for a run and then got my day started inside. 

Thursday was busy as we prepared food and decorated for Christmas as well. I guess I should point out that we weren't having our traditional meal or guests on Thursday but on Friday. That gave us all day to prep food and decorate. I baked the ham, made a batch of pie crust, made a pecan pie, made snickerdoodle cookies, prepared the sweet potato casserole, painted a small table, finish decorating the dining room for Christmas and was able to do a couple of fun things with the family. We played What Do You Meme Office Edition (it was fun but I thought/ hoped that we would laugh more when playing it) and in the evening we watched Die Hard. The kids had never seen it. I thought it was pretty good though the language was terrible. I think I saw it years ago but I didn't remember it much at all. The kids thought it was all right. 

Pie crust making...

pie making...

Getting ready to paint this drop leaf table, a.k.a. the future hot cocoa bar table...

Here are a couple of before and afters of the room. I am not done with the room but I like how it's turning out so far. 

I read this quote by Dinesh D'Souza about Thanksgiving and think it's really good. He wrote: "Today I give thanks for the pilgrims, settlers and founders who made the country to which immigrants like me subsequently came. Without you, America would be a place but not a civilization, nothing that would interest immigrants from the far ends of the earth." So much to be thankful for, including this county and all the comfort creatures that inure from freedom and free markets. 

Anyway, that was our Thursday. On Friday, we spent a good portion of the morning getting the house ready and more dishes ready for family that was coming over. It was just my brother Joe and his family so there was nothing to stress about but there always seems to be high expectations for the meal and of course no one wants to have guests over when the house is messy. So it was all hands on deck. Everything turned out well- Joe brought a sugar cream pie which is something I only have at Thanksgiving time when he comes into town. 

I had a major picture fail and have zero pictures from when our guests were here. 

Saturday was quite relaxing which was enjoyable. We watched football- for the love, I actually wanted OSU to win (I don't like OSU at all but I didn't want Michigan to win and possibly move ahead of UC in the college rankings). 

In the evening, we met some of Donnie's dad's family for dinner. It was good to catch up with the family.

We took a few pictures before we left for the restaurant...

Family pic with my camera's self timer- it's off center but I will crop it.

Sunday was church and then getting ready for the week so grocery store and all that good stuff that needed to happen. I took a meal to a friend's house who'd recently had surgery and asked Abby if she'd paint something cheery for her. I took the meal over and Donnie took Abby back to Miami. Jacob left for Cincinnati earlier in the day. And that was our nice long weekend!

Oh I forgot, I put up this small tree in our family room instead of the twelve foot one. I wasn't feeling the twelve foot one. It is strange to see such a small tree in the room but it looks really pretty at night lit up; I don't regret the decision (at least so far...).