Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

We had such a great break, although I will admit that it was nice to get back into our little routine today. Disclaimer: this post is very long and more than a little boring.


We got back from Weekend to Remember on Sunday night, and we left Monday morning to visit Matt's family in the Houston area. We took Nutmeg with us on her first roadtrip since Avery was born, so the car ride down there was a little more exciting than usual! We also had to use some creativity with our food/gas/bathroom stops.

Yeah, don't judge. We rarely eat McDonald's, but when you don't want to wait in line at Buccee's and you're in a random town like Madisonville, you can't be too picky.

Anyway, we spent a few days hanging out in Baytown; Avery got lots of play time with Ne-Ne, Pop-Pop, and Aunt Carrie (oh, and Bella!) and we pigged out at Thanksgiving dinner #1. So yummy. Who needs an oven to cook a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner? 

We headed back to town on Wednesday after lunch, dropped Nutmeg and our bags off at home, swung by my parents' for dinner since we 1) had no groceries and 2) my brother, his wife, my sister, and her boyfriend were all there, and then braved the grocery store on Thanksgiving Eve to get the stuff we needed to make our contributions to my family Thanksgiving dinner.

On Thanksgiving day, we woke up early-ish to get a head start on our green bean and sweet potato casseroles while we watched the parade on TV. The casseroles both turned out SO good. Thanksgiving was hosted by my parents this year, and I'm glad it was so close because we were still some of the last ones to show up! This was the first year in a long time that all of the cousins were in the same place (and go figure that we didn't get a picture!), so the feast was crowded, loud, and so much fun.

Since everybody was in town, the oldest cousin, Amy, had organized a cousins trip to the drive-in that night (even though it was SO cold), and most everybody said they were going, but our group of 12 turned into 6 when it was all said and done. We bundled up in the back of two cars to watch the movies (Burlesque and Unstoppable) and froze our little booties off, but it was a fun little adventure.

Matt and I got home late (Avery stayed at my parents' for the night) and woke up semi-early to brave the stores on Black Friday. We weren't after any huge doorbusters, so we avoided the 4am craziness in exchange for a more reasonable 7:30 start time. After a trip to Target for some Play-Doh and Elf, we grabbed breakfast at Chick-Fil-A before checking out Costco when they opened at 9. We bought a birthday present and a Christmas CD, but other than that, we really weren't needing any of the must-have items of the year. And then we went to Hobby Lobby. Ohmygoodness, I went a little nuts. I found a couple of gifts for Avery's MDO teachers, but then I found some vinyl-lettered wall art for our living room and bathroom, a towel hook thing for our guest bathroom, and a Christmas tree skirt (finally!) that I loved.

We were shopped out by then (it doesn't take much these days), so we picked up Avery and took her and Nutmeg to the playground at our church to use up some of their energy before naptime. Avery loves slides and will just climb up and slide down over and over and over again. After a leftover-turkey lunch at my parents' (did I mention I still hadn't gone to the grocery store at this point?!?), we finally made it home. Avery refused to nap (go figure), so we got some house projects completed before we grabbed pizza for dinner. My brother Aaron and his wife Chelsea joined us for the evening, and then my other brother Nick stopped by with his girlfriend. I'm pretty sure I was lousy company because I was just exhausted and fell asleep on my comfy chair. Oh well.

On Saturday, Matt worked on our broken kitchen sink all morning while I entertained Avery and tried to get stuff done around the house. We all worked in the garage (okay, Avery played in the driveway) to get it cleaned out and organized so Matt can finally park in there again before it gets too cold. Aren't you jealous of all the fun that goes on in this house? Matt and Avery took naps while I went up to church to get some stuff done before Sunday, and then (are you sensing a trend here?) we went to my parents' again for dinner with the whole family (minus Allison) before Aaron and Chelsea went back to Denton. Matt and I got the Christmas decorations out, and he put up the tree while I decked the rest of the figurative halls. We have a monster of a Christmas tree (we got it for free last year, and it's much too big for our living room, so we've decided that this will be its last Christmas with us; anybody want a tree for next year??), so we postponed the putting-on of ornaments and watched a movie instead. Okay fine, I fell asleep again.

Sunday ended up being much more hectic than anticipated because after church and (well this is just getting embarrassing) lunch at my parents', our car battery decided to just die. So after a jump start, we went to Walmart instead of home, Matt got a battery while I stayed in the car with a sleeping Avery, and then we went back to my parents' to actually install said battery while Avery slept some more. As soon as the car was good to go, we were too because we had practice for the church Christmas choir, which lasted until 4:45. We rushed from church to Sonic (again, no grocery store trip yet-- don't judge!) to get dinner, got home, plopped Avery in her high chair to eat, let Nutmeg outside (poor thing had been stuck in the house all day), changed clothes, and went back to church for our monthly prayer gathering, which Matt and I were leading worship for. (That concentrated time of prayer was pretty much the best part of the day.) We finally got to go home around 7:30, put Avery to bed, and just crashed on the couch with some homemade popcorn. Matt fell asleep during the football game (what?!?) and I finally made a grocery list before we were able to call it a day.

And now you know way more than you ever wanted to know about our week. I'm obviously lacking pictures (which I'll add after I steal Allison's and my mom's), and I have no idea why I included so many mundane details, but there you have it. Whether you had a whole week off or just a couple of days, I hope your break was enjoyable, too!

p.s. I went to the grocery store today, thankyouverymuch.