So I’m pretty much a bad journal keeper. I think I made it through two gratitude days before my embarrassing failure. But you know what, I’m okay with it. I taught last week in Young Women’s and the topic was using your leisurely time wisely, which I wouldn’t say I’m the best at, but it was good for me. That is why I haven’t written lately. Blogging, unfortunately falls under the “want to” category, and my “have to” list hasn’t allowed it. So I’m going to play catch up. Here’s a little recap of this last Thanksgiving week/weekend.

Steve’s parents in town– they haven’t seen Hallie in such a long time that it was so fun to see the interaction. In fact, after they left, Hallie got in some trouble and I was disciplining her, she quickly ran to dad, who luckily reinforced my original punishment (1 minute timeouts for a two year old are traumatizing!) when she wasn’t happy with mom or dad she said, I want grandma! We took them to the children’s museum so they could see Hallie in her fun little environment. We had some good times. It’s always a little hard for me to say goodbye, especially not knowing when we’ll see them next.
Awesome Turkey day- We did wake up to snow, that was a little weird. We hosted a large breakfast at our house with Steve’s parents and his brother Bob’s family. We had french toast, eggs, hashbrowns, cinnamon pull aparts, and smoothies. We went to Bob’s for our evening feast, and oh what a feast it was. Virginia made a beautiful Martha Stewart worthy Turkey, garnish and all. It was just so good to have so many family members around the table. Something we don’t see a whole lot here in Wisconsin.

Black Friday Shopping-This was my first experience of the day after Thanksgiving shopping. I had purpose, so I got up at 4:15, did my business and I was home back in bed by 5:30. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined and it was worth every penny.
August Rush– Friday we went and saw the movie August Rush. It wasn’t liked by the majority of the family, but I have to say I really liked it, probably because I really liked the music. Is the story believable…about as believable as How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but I liked that too.
Great Conversation- There was plenty of good conversation to go around. It’s a good feeling to be in the company of family and be at ease knowing you don’t have to make conversation just to make conversation. Also Bob’s son was home from college and he is always a great person to talk to. He’s honest and open and I really like that about him.
Pit– A nice family game of Pit. I only include this because…well, I won, it was a highlight!
Football- wow was there a lot of football going on. I’m part of the Neilson Media Research this past week, so our TV journal was quite easy to fill out. Steve was supposed to play football Thanksgiving morning, but woke up to snow on the ground. Being from Arizona, he was not about to go out in the cold and play, he figured they’d cancel…but they didn’t. Too many Wisconsinites I guess!
Santa cookies- Steve’s family has a tradition of making these santa cookies, and boy are they a lot of work. I’m not sure how Marva ever managed to make these with all the kids she had, that had to of been a chaotic task. But it was a tradition passed down that you don’t dare break! So we thought what better way to start a tradition in our family than with Nana teaching us how to do it. She is seriously the master at these cookies. It was great watching all the guys decorate these little cookies, painting the lips, painting the eyebrows. I don’t dare eat one now that I know all the hard work and effort that went into them. This was my first experience with the cookies and I have to say I’m impressed and excited to carry on the tradition.
And now ladies and gentlemen…it is Christmas, and I’m soaking up every second of it!