Turkey, Trees, Family & Peas

I like that title. Makes me giggle. hehehe

Starting the weekend before last Stephen started cooking and preparing some of the many Thanksgiving day dishes. He started with homemade rolls and moved on to some other dishes from our menu that could be made a few days in advance and then frozen. The rest of the week each day another dish or item was prepared. Sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, turkey brine, and the list went on. Everything was made fresh! He even made homemade mushroom soup to use in the green bean casserole. (No, I didn't try it. It had FUNGUS in it!!!)

Family members started making their trips to NC on Wednesday. Sofi was the first to arrive on Wednesday flying back from her training. Nikki picked her up from the airport and they went home for the night. The Tomanek family arrived next. They made the trek from NJ on Wednesday and arrived late that night. Jacki flew up from Florida on Thursday morning. By 3pm on Thursday the house was full of family and smells of Thanksgiving!!! Katherine was quite excited! Her cousin Tasha was there to play with her and spoil her rotten! :) Not to mention aunts a plenty! :)

Before the family all arrived on Thursday Stephen and I had gone through all of the Black Friday ads. Oh how we love Black Friday shopping. Initially Stephen had thought that we might not go. All of the Black Friday websites had posted ads and he'd been researching for the past few weeks. He hadn't seen a whole lot that he thought was a good deal. Amazing what happens when you see the actual flyers! You find stuff!!! We mapped out our "route" and Stephen put the shopping list in an Excel spreadsheet. Come on now, you're not shocked are you?

Thanksgiving dinner was awesome. Katherine had some peas for dinner and was fed by her Aunt Nikki! She even spared Aunt Nikki a total mess. Now THAT's holiday spirit! :) I even shared my revelation that when Katherine goes to sneeze, cough, etc. instead of you hiding your face you shield hers. Amazing how that cuts down on the splatter!!!

Friday morning Stephen and I got up dark and early (there was no bright about it) and went off to do our shopping. 3:30am comes WAY early. Seriously. There's only one day a year where I realize that 3:30 comes in two times AM and PM. Otherwise I believe there's only one. PM. Jacki stayed home with Katherine to have some Aunt/Niece bonding time. Stephen and I hit 14 stores in about 7 hours. By far the most painful was Kohls. The lines were ridiculous. Mind you we have a process. Kohls is a store where I typically go get the "stuff" while Stephen goes directly to stand in line. I bring him things while he stands in line and continue to shop around the store. When I'm done, he goes and walks around. We have a system. Electronics stores, it's my job to stand in line. He doesn't trust me to walk around there. :-/ I might get sucked into an impulse buy. Oops. This year we even did something crazy... we went to the mall. Stephen went to Sears while I went to Express. (Jeans sale & free lounge pants... you'd have gone too!) At around 11am we headed home quite tuckered out. Some of us (ahem) took a good nap that afternoon. (See photos)

The Tomaneks were here for dinner on Friday night and spent some more bonding time with Katherine. I believe Marek even had his first incident with some of Katherine's "special sauce". hehe Poor Marek.

Saturday was the day of sister pictures!!!! YAY!! We had a plan of wearing Christmas PJs for some photos and then jeans and red shirts for another set. I had some PJs for Katherine and a red turtleneck for her too. We figured we could do a picture of Tootsie & Pops girls!! :) We (I) had a GREAT time. The photographer I'm pretty sure found us amusing. The picture of us on our bellies in PJs... all he kept saying was "You don't pick your boogers do you? No!!! That's silly!" I couldn't stop laughing. Still. Now. Why is that SO funny? No idea. But alas, he got what he was looking for. Non-fake smiles! After pictures we all went to Maggianos for dinner. We ate family style. Oh-my-goodness. If you've never done that. You need to. AMAZING!!!! Totally decadent, but oh so yummy!!! Everyone does have to agree on food, but the end result is fantastic!!! Jacki had Tiramisu for the first time and I'm pretty sure she's a lover now. :)

Sunday was another big day. Katherine, Stephen and I headed out to Boone (bumblestuckville) for a Christmas tree. Yes, I realize they sell them at Lowes, Home Depot, Kmart, Food Lion, the street corner, gas stations, etc. But is that really an adventure? No. We wanted an adventure and a FRESH Christmas Tree. It doesn't get much fresher than a farm!!! hehe Some of you may recall our last visit to the Circle C Christmas Tree farm. Ahem. It wasn't a pretty day for me. I got my first speeding ticket (EVER) from a HORRID NC State Trooper. He was mean. Mean. And the red aurora that caused me to get the ticket... I haven't forgotten her. No ma'am. (I'm trying to get over it... but really, it's going to take some time... clearly, years!!!) Anyway, this time when we arrived it was daylight. And we could see all of the trees. The farm is massive. Christmas trees as far as you can see. Oh and lest I forget... mud. Lots of it. Did I mention it was raining? Again, folks, adventure!!! We hopped out of the car (literally) and into the mud with our jeans rolled up. I strapped Katherine to my chest, put a blanket over her and off we went to find the perfect tree.

I saw it from a distance. Perfect. Gorgeous. Tall and majestic. Also 9ft. I looked at Stephen and said OH LOOK!!! The perfect Christmas tree!!!! He took his stick, that had markings for each foot of tree so you could measure, and saw that it was 9ft and just looked, shut his eyes, and shook his head. Humpf. So we continued our quest... The next perfect tree (also referred to as our "maybe christmas tree") we saw... measured... evaluated... and decided it was quite lovely. Not as tall and majestic as my 9ft beauty... but stunning never the less. :) We walked around some more but Katherine kept coming back to that tree. She really liked it. Just wait till you see the pictures. She was really into it. :P

It was decided. We'd take THAT tree. (And besides we were getting pretty cold on our adventure. We were in the mountains afterall. Yes, we've gotten thin blooded.) The men on the little carts drove over with their chainsaw and down came the tree!! Weeeeee... It was loaded on the little cart and taken to the bottom of the hill to be bagged and strapped to the top of the mini-van. (I'm still way digging the mini-van by the way! It ROCKS.)

We then started to investigate the timeshares in Boone. So let me start off by saying fibbing is not something I excel at. At all. I crack under pressure. I'm just no good at it. So we pull into the timeshare resort and the man at the little security hut says "Hello sir, can I help you?" Stephen replies, "Yes, we're headed to the timeshares."

Security Hut Man: Do you have a reservation?

Stephen (fibber McGee): Yes. (I yelp a little... )

Security Hut Man: Name?

McGee: Aleksza

Hut Man: Hm. I don't see it here...

And so the little saga continued until he directed us to the reservation location. I was ready to blurt, "We don't have a reservation we just want to drive around and look." Yeah. I'm awesome right. It goes back to when DJ would have Cheryl and I hike to an ice cream parlor for some treats after we were supposed to be sitting on the porch or at one of the neighbors houses. He'd have a brilliant idea to just walk a few blocks for some sweets. I'd be nervous. Every time. One time we even got caught by Aunt Catherine (some of you might know her as SISTER ROSALIMA!!!!). What happened? DJ fibbed. I couldn't do it. She's a nun for petes sake!! He told her we were at the Kolisis. I assure you we were not. We were getting ice cream. And you know what? I always got blamed for being the oldest whenever we got in trouble. "You should know better." I think AC & UD and Grandmom forgot the whole peer pressure thing. DJ was good at it!! Real good. I think Cheryl would be with me on this one.

Anyway, I digress. The whole driving around the place... I was quite sure that security had been contacted and we were going to get in trouble. What trouble? I don't know, okay. I just knew trouble. Did they? Did we? No. We got lucky. :P

After we left the scene, we headed home. What should have been a 3 hour trip... 5.5 hours. Not a pretty site. Katherine wasn't so thrilled with being in the car again, and we hit upon multiple feeding times on the way back. But alas, we got home and had our maybe christmas tree with us!

Our tree is now lit and adorned with special ornaments in our family room. Katherine's getting used to the idea of a part of the forest being next to her ExerSaucer but I think she likes the lights.

It was a great week with family. We enjoyed everyone's company and were so grateful to have my sisters and Stephen's sister and family join us to celebrate Katherine's first Thanksgiving. What a blessed year we've had... From last year's Thanksgiving Day when we told everyone that I was pregnant, to this Thanksgiving Day when our baby girl celebrated with us. So grateful. So happy! :)

oxox

Weeks pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/MyFirstThanksgiving#