An Uneventful Thanksgiving

We've had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving, but it really didn't feel like "Thanksgiving". Dinner was at my grandma's, as usual. And my mom and grandma took care of everything. I asked if there was anything I could make/bring, and was told "no". Dinner wasn't until 5pm, but we were told to come early to visit. So I planned on arriving around 3pm. I figured that gave us a couple hours to visit and play with the kids, and have a couple drinks. A holiday must. But it was such a lazy day, and I didn't have anything to do. I fell asleep, and no one (meaning Vince) woke me up until 3pm. So by the time I got my lazy butt dressed and presentable, got the kids ready and out the door, we didn't make it to Grandma's until 4:30! I felt so bad. It just seemed like another trip to grandma's for any old dinner. Except for all the food. But come to think of it, my grandma pretty much cooks that way whenever she has people over for dinner anyway. That must be who I get it from. Dinner was yummy, though I managed to skip dessert. Pumpkin and pecan pie are not my favorites, so no hardship there. We wanted to get the kids to bed not too late, so we left by 7:30pm. It just doesn't feel like a holiday to me unless the whole day is spent with family. It was a nice three hours though. I was so groggy from my nap that my "drink" consisted of a Coke. I felt a little caffeine was necessary.

Bright and early the next morning I got the kids dressed in their outfits we bought them for Christmas to go get their pictures taken. Now being the time of year it is, I planned on getting to the store when it opened. I was very excited about this because for some reason it never occured to me to do this until I had three kids. So Annamaria has a little red dress with black ribbon. Sophia has a matching skirt and black sweater, and Harrison has black trousers and a red button down shirt. They look so cute I can barely stand it. They could almost be a music group from the seventies, their outfits are the same but different. So we get the kids loaded into the car. Now up to this point, this is all a repeat of Wednesday, but we only made it as far as the driveway on Wednesday because Harrison broke the car door getting into the minivan. Now when I say "broke", I mean he stuck his finger in the door where it latches and pushed the lever down. For some reason it jammed and the door wouldn't close because it just kept hitting the latch and the door would re-open. And since I couldn't very well drive down 78 with the minivan door open, I had to call it quits, get everyone back in the house, back into regular clothes and give up my idea of the perfect holiday picture. I was so mad I could barely stand it. Vince came home early and fixed the door, but by the time I was ready to give it all another shot, I called the store and the wait was 2 1/2 hours. And no, they don't take reservations over the phone, you have to sign up in person. Well, I didn't want the kids running around in their Christmas clothes for 2 1/2 hours, they wouldn't be wearable by Christmas if they did. So everything got postposed until Friday. We get to Kiddie Kandids before the doors are even unlocked, and we're still the third in line for photos. So after a 45 minute wait, it's finally our turn. Now I don't expect great smiles from Annamaria being only six months old, but Sophia and Harrison have been through the photographer routine before. I'm telling you, getting a half-way decent photo of the three of them was stress inducing. I was breaking out in a sweat. But we got one where both Sophia and Harrison look good, and Annamaria doesn't look too bad, so I was satisfied. Next we got a killer picture of just Sophia, and that took about 30 seconds. Next was Harrison. Well, forget about it. He was done. Not even a bribe with candy was going to get that boy to cooperate. So we thought we'd skip him for the time being, and go for a photo of the baby. Forget about that too. It was so past her nap time, she wasn't going to smile even for mommy. So we thought we'd take a break, let the next people go, and get worked back in. After waiting for another 45 minutes to get worked back in, and the kids getting crabbier and crabbier, I just decided I'd bring just Harrison and Annamaria back Monday morning after taking Sophia to school. I'm telling you, I'm not looking forward to Monday morning.

So after our photo drama, Vince decided I needed a break and thought he'd take me to the movies to see the new Harry Potter movie. My mom and grandma left for Vegas that morning, so we tried our regular baby sitter. She was celebrating her birthday, so we tried our friend's daughter, Kristin, who just started baby sitting. She's only in the sixth grade, but she's really good with the kids. We weren't sure if we should just bring Annamaria along with us, but she said she could handle all three, so we left her our cell number and jetted out the door. Now the movie was great. I'd like to see it again actually, can't wait for it to come out on DVD. It's been so long since I read the book, I actually forgot some of the story line and ended up being suprised by parts of the movie. Can't wait for the next one, I think I'm a Harry Potter junkie. When we pulled back into the driveway, we noticed a familiar car parked in front of our house, and we walked in the front door to find the baby sitter's dad sitting with Annamaria in the glider. Poor Kristin. Annamaria decided to give her a hard time, and she ended up calling her parents for help. Annamaria is just starting to go through that separation phase and I think she just wanted her mommy and daddy. We paid her well though, so hopefully that helped make up for any trauma our children inflicted on her.

So here is a picture of Annamaria looking just as innocent as can be. Can you believe this sweet child can push a babysitter to her end?