We Hope You Had a Wonderful Thanksgiving!

We have been out of town for the last few days visiting my parents for Thanksgiving. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, and ate way too much! (I reserve the right to grant myself clemency from dieting, in any form, over the Thanksgiving holiday.) Having said that , I must confess that I think I am still in a Turkey coma, so this blog may sound a little scatter-brained and random.

Firstly, "The Huntress" (see the earlier post) is pleased to give the following status report of the mice situation. All traps were empty upon our return home. The exterminator is still coming, because, I know that those little buggers are just lying in wait...taunting me...

My kids made me laugh a lot over the Thanksgiving holiday. Brian kept telling everyone that it was "Sanksgiving". Then he would ask me "Is it Sanksgiving, or Christmas, Mom?" I would remind him it is Thanksgiving and he would say "Oh, yeah...it's Sanksgiving..." Then, as we were driving around he would see all of the Christmas decorations and he would ask me again if it was Christmas or Thanksgiving. I understand why it could be confusing to the poor little guy. Brian, honey...Mommy will explain all of the ins and outs of commercialism when you are a little older. Maybe, one day, you will even find beauty in finding great deals on Black Friday.

Or

???

Evan kept pointing out how big Brian's muscles are to everyone. Each time he did, Brian would pull up his sleeves to show his impressive biceps. It was not done by Evan mean-spiritedly...seeing Brian flex was very entertaining. Grandma, could be heard saying in response to Brian striking body-building like poses "Ohhhh, my! Look at those muscles!"

Adam showed some mad skills while playing board games! He proved himself to be a formidable opponent in both Set, and Pictionary Junior. If Adam had a question about one of the words he was supposed to draw, he would charge up the steps and ask Grandad to explain it to him. At one point, I was in my office, (a.k.a. the bathroom) and I heard Adam ask Grandad what the word "umpire" meant. My Dad began to explain saying "You know when you are watching a baseball game and the man that...." Before Grandad could finish I heard Adam call out, as he was running out the door..."Oh, yeah! I know who you mean!" I was talking with my Dad later, and he said how much he enjoyed helping Adam, and how funny it was to see the "light bulb click on" in his eyes when he realized what he wanted to draw. I witnessed him running back to the game several times. You could see the proverbial "wheels turning" in his mind as he formulated how he was going to draw his clues.

Of course, watching the Virginia Tech Hokies beat the University of Virginia Cavaliers was a highlight of the Thanksgiving holiday. Go Hokies! Mike's cousin Nick even got some camera time, as he plays an offensive guard position for Tech.

I had an unexpected "touching moment" during our visit. My sister Stephanie called my mom to thank her for "sucking the snot out of her nose when she was a baby." Mom said she responded with a confused "Uh... well, you're welcome..." Stephanie went on to explain that her 5 month old, Jack had a terrible cold and had to have his nasal passages cleared so...as she was wrestling him and using a bulb syringe to clean out his little nose, she said to little Jack ( as he screamed his sweet little head off) "You'll thank me for this, one day!" and then it dawned on her....Jack probably won't ever thank her for irrigating his little nose. Purging nasal passages is truly,thankless work. Realizing this, she called Mom to officially thank her for, as mentioned before, "sucking the snot out of her nose when she was a baby." We got a good chuckle out of the story, but then it hit me...parenting is often thankless work,so...this goes out to my parents, and Mike's parents...This Thanksgiving we want to THANK OUR PARENTS FOR EVERYTHING! WE LOVE YOU!

Here we see my sister, Stephanie (the nasal passage sucker-outer) holding her son Jack (the nasal passage sucked-outee). Uncle Jon is holding Jack's twin brother, Alex. (Don't worry Alex...I'm sure Mommy will irrigate your nasal passages one day, too!)

Hmmm...note to self...remember to clean out Adam's ears tomorrow. Be at peace with the fact that he will not thank me for my efforts.