Thanksgiving (Belated)

Thanksgiving has come and gone, but until now, I've been too busy to chronicle it.
It wasn't exactly the best of days - most of us had to work that night, and we were dreading it, and it showed.
Dinner was a bit disappointing, but then my daugher-in-law and one of the grans had the stomach flu, so they weren't up to eating much anyway.

Family at table



The sales that night were a nightmare. There were fist fights over a stack of sheets, (One woman wanted them ALL and was throwing punches and had another lady in a head lock.) They were escorted out of the store by the police and weren't allowed back in.
That was just one of the many fun incidents.

Black Friday wasn't quite that exciting, but it was impossible keeping up with the mess. Saturday it took two of us and six others to clean it up.
Things are somewhat back in order now...

We recieve a ton of merchandise daily, but of course the few items that most people want - we can't get in. Leap pads and crazy hair Lalaloopsie dolls, and Angry Birds board game.

Typical.

As per usual, as soon as the turkey was gone, hubby started decorating for Christmas.
I'm allowed one spot - the upstairs tree. I was too tired to care, so I hired it out...

The girls do a good job, and it's more fun to watch them than to do it myself!



I started making them gingerbread cookies and spiced cider as payment, but Millie started feeling sick again, so they rushed home.
I had to enjoy the treat by myself (while watching the Nutcracker Ballet.)
It was the first peaceful moment I've had all month...



*AHhhh....*

Besides decorating for Christmas, hubby has been busy putting up wallpaper and painting in the basement. The family room has been waiting for 20 to be finished, and is finally getting some attention - the downstairs bath also got a makeover (badly needed) and is looking pretty spiffy.

Me? I have done nothing all month but work and sleep. Something feels wrong with the universe - hubby has more days off lately than I do. (At least it feels that way.)

I know I promised a long juicy post - but it's been a week, if there was anything interesting going on, I've forgotten it already.

Slogging through 'till Christmas...
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I'm a Survivor

...I made it through the crazy Thanksgiving day sales, Black Friday and Saturday (the aftermath) and I was planning a long juicy post for tomorrow with lots of photos (thinking I had the day off,) but I guess it will have to wait for Tuesday...

I just found out I work tomorrow too. {Poo!}

I've slept most of the day today so I'm (almost) feeling myself again.
Hang in there, I'm still alive - be back soon.

Meanwhile, enjoy this scene from the Nutcracker - I popped it in tonight while I baked cookies.

Balm to my nerves.


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Thanks Week

Another busy week down.
This week's shopping trip with Arilie (the oldest gran) on Thursday was lots of fun. Although getting her to focus on a dress was a bit of a chore. (ha ha)
She was all over the place...

She fell in love with the first dress we saw. I made her go to a couple of other places and try some other things on, but we ended up going back for that first one. (Which wasn't a bad thing at all.)
Meanwhile, I learned that she loves pillow pets, angry birds, and owls.
(Among a bazillion other things...)

We had dinner at Red Robin, which I love for the food, but it's always too noisy for conversation of any kind. She had never been there before, so all the more fun for me!
She was the last of the three to get to go, and was SO looking forward to it.
I've said it before, but I love spoiling my girlies!

Arilie and Millie in their new frocks:



Friday was Ellie's birthday, so we had a little party for her.
She was pretty excited too - she got her ears pierced for her day:


I would think that would be a traumatic experience at four years old, but I'm told she barely even flinched.

She scored some fun presents:




And had a cute cake:





Such a fun age - good times were had by all...

Speaking of prezzies, Jenny had a rough night at work the other night, so she bought herself a few... (She loves Perry the Platypus, can you tell?)



Puppy got something too:


The jury is still out on whether he likes it or not...

I received news Friday night that my nephew had a snowboarding accident and broke his neck. We rode up to see him yesterday, and thought he looked really good (considering,) very animated, obviously no paralysis - and would you believe it - chomping at the bit to get back on the slopes!

Truly miraculous.

Lastly, my sister sent me the link to this story on youtube - it talks about the McBride family, who are among my ancestors.
Nothing like seeing the suffering they went through to make you appreciate what we have now...


(Okay, having trouble loading the video, so here's the link, just in case...)
Heber Robert McBride Link

So much to be thankful for this year - with all it's trials and tribulations, still, life is good. I love my family and friends and count you all among my blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Off Day...

Days off are so rare lately - they end up not being restful days, they're more like catch up days to try to get all the household chores done. It's almost more restful to go to work any more!

I sure do miss my sedentary lifestyle, but, quoth the Raven, "Nevermore!"

...Still adjusting.

Today I'm supposed to take my other gran dress shopping after school. She's a little tricky - she doesn't really like dresses, or shopping, so this will be a different experience.
(She's still trying to figure out how to get a toy out of the deal!)

We looked online a little on Sunday, just to get an idea of what she might like, and the styles that she picked are the type that only look good on stick girls. My girlies are a little too meaty to be flattered by them.
So how do I gently steer her away from what she wants for something she will look better in?
I have no idea. I'm a little stressed about it.
I'm just hoping Jennifer wakes up in time to go with us she's good at that.

Trying to gear up for next week - it's going to be a different holiday for us. Wayland, Jennifer and I all work Thanksgiving day AND Black Friday. I've been hearing horror stories already, so I'm not looking forward to it.
Meanwhile, Melissa and Jennie are planning the bulk of the work for Thanksgiving Dinner. Probably a good thing, but you know how mom's worry - I'm such a control freak, I don't know if I can relinquish the responsibility.

We'll see.

Christmas is feeling strange too this year. Jeff & family planned a trip to Disneyland the day after Christmas, so they are not doing much in the way of gifts.
Hubby signed us on to go with them - so does that mean we don't gift either?
I'm not really sure what we're doing, and it's throwing a big knot in my planning.
I don't really want to do the big dinner and breakfast if I'm not going to be around the next day to clean it all up...
Plus, we've been hearing stories about how crowded it is down there during the holidays - so we'll spend most of our time standing in lines? Who knows?

Hubby has already hired a house sitter to guard the house (and the dog), so that's covered, but I'm not really sure I'm comfortable with that either.
It's someone he knows really well from work - I know who he is, but I know nothing about him. Do I really want a stranger living in my house for a week?
...Not really.

Oy. It's a once in a lifetime thing, and I'm sure it will be fun, but I just want a quiet peaceful holiday.

Some interesting things showed up in my house this week - a new chair, and a giant Christmas wreath. They were gifts from the guy who hubby drove to California with...
(Nightmare trip - he was supposed to earn $250 for his help, but unbeknownst to him, the guy had spent his share before they even left, so it ended up costing him instead.)

Long long story, but what it boils down to, is that they were guilt offerings to ease his hurting conscience. Hubby made it clear that they're even now (so he doesn't have to see the guy again!)

Anyway, the chair is nice, as chairs go - but it doesn't really go with anything else in our house, so what am I to do with it?
If there were two of them, I could switch out the chairs in the living room - but one just doesn't work... Like Cinderella's one shoe - it's pretty, but not practical.
My house is so crowded now, the last thing I need is more furniture!



Melissa bought some old old OLD horror movies for Halloween, and strangely they have made me nostalgic for those old classics. Going to pick up a few favorites to enjoy during the Christmas season...


LOL, computers have come a long way, right?
...And I always meant to see this one, but I never have. (The 1970's version was awful!)

...They don't show these oldies on TV anymore.

Wish I could go to bed, but got to get ready for the mall.
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27 Dresses

...Or something like that - that's how many Miss Millie tried on today.

It was time for gran-girl #2 to have a grandma day and go shopping for her Christmas dress. This young lady is very fashion conscious and has her own definite ideas of what she likes.

For this one, we headed to the mall...

As luck would have it, Jenny was free, so she came along too.
She gave suggestions, and Millie ended up choosing the dress she helped pick out for her. (An elegant little black & white number with just the right amount of bling at the neck.)
I was thankful for Jenny's input - she steered her in a good direction. She looks very pretty and so mature.

These girls are growing up so fast - I swear they've skipped 4 sizes this year!

Thursday is the oldest one's turn, and then we're done.
No surprises from Grandma this year, but the shopping experience, and the bonding thereof is part of my gift to them. I only hope it is as fun for them as it is for me!

We all went to dinner afterwards. I had originally wanted a one on one event, but I'm glad now that Jenny was along.

The girls had fun chatting about their similar interests (and grandma was too tired to be chatty!) so, she was a blessing.
It's nice to see the girls bonding with their aunt, and looking up to her for advice.

A very pleasant day.

It's getting dark really early now, so it feels like bed time way before I would normally lean that way. I'm already tucked in - with my laptop and Harry Potter on TV.
I'm ready to call it a day... and it's only 8:30!

(Jennifer has been up since Saturday night, so I'm sure she's ready to crash too.)

G'Night!
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Toyland

Yesterday ushered in the official start of Holiday shopping.

The yearly "Toy Book" is out where I work, which will be my bible for the coming weeks ahead.

Yesterday was a madhouse. I spent my entire shift trying to re-arrange and stock the Kid Connection shelves, while trying not to be impaled by all the shopping carts whizzing by.

Our department was hard-hit.
My co-worker tried to keep the area clean and orderly - a useless task.
Meanwhile, all the snow falling on the roof came dripping down in the form of murky water directly onto the Barbie aisle...

Welcome to the Holiday Season.

Someone commented to my daughter recently about her being a seasonal employee, and the chances of her staying on being marginal, and based on her performance.
I've been feeling bad for her - until I remembered - that's what they told me when I was hired too!

I had forgotten that little tid-bit of information until I was sleeping last night.
...But why wouldn't they want to keep me - I'm deaf, blind, slow, and clumsy.
I'm such a treasure! *Cough cough*

I've been taking it for granted that I'll still have a job come next year - not so.
I guess I should start saving...

Oh well, what will be will be.

I am enjoying the bigger paychecks for now.

This week, we had Ellie for the day, while her mom was an escort on a school field trip. The first thing I did was take her shopping!

I've been wanting to get all my grand girlies a new dress so they'll have something new to wear to church on Christmas day, but I want to let them choose them themselves.
(They're getting too old for grandma to pick their clothes anymore,) so I want to take each of them on a "grandma date" to achieve that.

This was an opportunity that fell right in my lap!

Ellie is such fun to shop with. We found her dress pretty quickly - she fell in love with the one I picked right off, then she was done looking.
We moved on to the shoe department, (I went to church with them a few weeks ago, and they were all wearing sandals - it's winter now, they need something warmer!)

We found some cute pink suede shoes that matched her dress - she was like Cinderella's step sister trying them on. She didn't care if they fit or not - she just wanted them - NOW!
We finally found the best fit, and she was done shopping - she just wanted to go home and put them all on to show grandpa.

I went to take a picture, but I couldn't get a good shot because she kept pulling the craziest poses - like America's Top Model... Zombie.

Exhibit A:


She's such a hoot.

Ideally, she would wait until Christmas day to wear the thing, but there's no way that's going to happen. We had a hard time even getting her to change to eat breakfast.

(She's not the only one who's impatient though, I have a closet full of fun things I've bought for her birthday - it was so hard not to pull them all out and give them to her on the spot! Only a week to go...)

Oh well, grandma's duty is done. I love spoiling my girls!

Friday after work, we zoomed down to Snow College to attend the opening of the Alumni art show.
It was fun to see our son's huge block print in real life! We have only seen it in photos until now.


His former professor (also his brother-in-law) was there, and he was strutting around like a proud papa. It must be so cool to see his former students going on and doing so well with their art! (Proud day for us too!)

What a fun night!
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Halloween 2011

I had the day off for Halloween, so Jenny and I had a girls day out.

Birthday shopping was the excuse, but who really needs a reason to shop?
(Hubby's birthday today.) We had a fun day, with lunch at our traditional stop.

The mall was a mad-house of trick or treaters - something I haven't experienced before...
We took the leisurely way home down the back roads, since it was rush hour, and had quite a pleasant drive - not much traffic there.

It was a beautiful fall day - warm and sunny (a first in ages for Halloween!)

When we got home, Melissa was there in her full Halloween regalia (office party) so Jenny dressed up and they handled the trick or treaters. Not many compared to other years.

We ordered Pizza and watched really old horror movies (we're talking Bella Lugosi)

I waited and waited for the gran-girls to come, but by 8:30 they still hadn't shown up, so I went to them.
They had already showered the and changed for bed, so I didn't get to see them dressed up. (Boo dad, what were you thinking?)

My Girls:





Sometime during the night, November crept in here and it's SNOWING to beat the band today. I have the day off again, so I'm going to hunker down and enjoy my Agatha Christie.
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