What?! No blog for Thanksgiving? You thought I’d never get a round tuit, but here it is!
Aunt Deborah is riding with us to go home for Thanksgiving. I asked her to be at our house by 9:30am, because we want to leave around that time. Aunt Deborah arrives early around 9:00am. We are just getting ready to start breakfast. I make pancakes and bacon for everyone.
Mommy and Aunt Deborah are trying to get Eric to say “gobble gobble”. Of course, he is so smart, he picks it up right away. He repeated “gobble gobble” all day when prompted.
After breakfast, Aunt Deborah plays with Eric and helps get him dressed while Mommy and I finished packing all the stuff that is required for an overnight trip with Eric: extra change of clothes…check! extra diapers…check! pajamas…check! pack-n-play (bed)…check! star pillow…check! blanket…check! toys…check! books…check! juice…check! coat, hat, and mittens…check! stroller…check! Mommy’s and Daddy’s overnight bags…check! Whew! Now with the car fully loaded (I’m glad I bought this boat of a car!), we add Aunt Deborah’s stuff and close the trunk. Mommy and Aunt Deborah argue briefly over who gets to ride in back with Eric. Mommy cedes to Aunt Deborah.
We arrive at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house safely after 2 1/2 hours and only one stop to change a diaper. Uncle Joe, Aunt Traci, Joah and Jake are already here. Eric is really excited to see everyone! Very tired without a nap all day, Eric is a little loopy. After everyone arrives, and Eric has had a chance to see everyone, Mommy puts him down for a nap. Grandma announces “one hour until dinner”. Since Eric really needs his nap to survive the rest of the day, we let him sleep through dinner. We suspect he will not eat much of the food anyway. He is somewhat picky about his food, lately. I am convinced that this trait must have come from Mommy’s genes, not mine 🙂
Well, the commotion of dinner and several people eating downstairs, eric wakes up. Although still alittle tired, he is ready to go, running around, playing, laughing. He loves his family so much! He is always happiest when we are all together.
The party winds down. Everyone eventually leaves to go home. Eric is tired, and we finally put him to bed. Not long after, Mommy and I also retire to the bedroom. Eric wakes shortly after. Mommy and Addy are up most of the night trying to keep Eric quiet and go to sleep. Eric is unfamiliar with the new guest room and is typically restless when sleeping in the same room with Mommy and Daddy. It must be the snoring 😉
We discover the next morning that not everyone was kept up all night. Grandpa slept through most of the noise. Aunt Deborah was elected to pilot the “family truckster” southward after breakfast. Mommy put up a good fight, but I get to ride in the back seat with Eric this time! I read a few books, including “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”. We played and laughed. I tried a few times to get Eric to take a nap, but he is too wound up. He sleeps better when nobody sits in the back seat.
We arrive safely back in Carmel, and Aunt Deborah continues south to her home. Eric plays for a while – he needs to stretch those little legs after the long car ride. He is finally ready for a nap.
Mommy and I begin decorating the house for Christmas. Lights on the tree, knick knacks on the shelves, miniature village and nativity in the curio, ornaments, etc. Eric wakes to a living room filled with bright lights. Amazingly, he is interested only in looking at the decorations. A few gentle touches and a desire to push the button on the “santa clause stuck in the chimney” are all he needs to be satisfied.
We teach Eric that Santa says “ho ho ho”. He is so cute when he says it. He purses his little lips and says “ho ho ho”. Cute, cute, cute! Christmas will be so much fun this year!
Saturday, I mulch the last dropping of leaves in the yard and start with the outdoor Christmas decorations. First, the lights over the doorway – they are shaped into bunches of grapes on a vine. Next, the faux Christmas tree made of lights, a la Monument Circle, only much smaller (about 3′ high). With vineyard and tree in place, the lights go up over the porch, up one side all the way across and down the other side. The candy arches are my favorite – sixteen candy cane striped arches 2′ wide by 18″ tall, arranged along the front sidewalk starting from the porch and curving around toward the driveway. These are dialed to run through the entire array of patterns: running slowly, running quickly, flashing rapidly, alternating, steady, fading, etc. Finally, I put up the inflatables. We have an 8′ tall Snowman and a life size Homer Simpson in a Santa suit. These are carefully staked to the ground and plugged in briefly for a quick test.
This is when I realize that I have neglected to follow the previous year’s arrangement, and I do not have enough extension cords and splitters to connect all this stuff! Well, rather than tear half of it down and move it, I decide a trip to Menards is a better idea. Eric is napping, so I go alone. I return with three new extension cords and a 3-way splitter. I finish at dusk. Soon, the front yard is glowing with festive lights. Frosty is having a little trouble standing up straight this year. I suspect he has seen his last winter season. Homer has his usual troubles standing up, but once he is up he stays standing. Eric is up from his nap by now and is fascinated by the bright lights and colors in the front yard! The look on his face makes all the work worthwhile.
Sunday, we rest. I love four day weekends!