November 16-30th

We wrapped up the month of November with  the Thanksgiving Holiday, along with celebration of Scott's 22nd Birthday! Happy Birthday wishes also go out to Sheila Bozyk who celebrated on the 28th. 

Tom invited our dear friend John Dutton to come visit over the long weekend. I can't believe John has been living in his own house in Ohio and working for Northrop in Dayton for 2 years now!  He was able to arrive on Sunday before the holiday. John arrived in the early afternoon just in time for the Ravens football game. Tom invited Dan and Gloria over too since they were friends with John as well. Tom grilled up some bratwurst and by the time the usual crazy Ravens game was over, we were too stuffed for dinner. We put John up in our 'guest bedroom' in the basement. 

I had been busy working each day including Saturday and Sunday. Our whole department chose to work on Sunday so we could all take off Thanksgiving Day. So I worked 10 days straight up until Thanksgiving day. I had to take a bit of time off  on Tuesday morning to take Cookie in for a well check. Fortunately her lump under her neck cleared right up and she was back to her cute self. Since I was busy working, Tom was busy entertaining. John had some business to take care of on Monday, so the two guys decided to spend some time close to home in Olde Ellicott City.  Turns out, all the shops and restaurants are basically closed on Mondays. Instead the ended up having lunch at Glory Days before John went off for his appointment at the credit union. On Tuesday they decided to trek up to Gettysburg. John really enjoys history and they  built a new visitor center at the park which none of us have toured yet.  So the guys headed up to Pennsylvania, stopping for lunch in a local diner. They toured the museum and then looked into a bus tour of the park. The bus tours seemed to be full, so they purchased a CD and book and took themselves on a guided tour of the battleground. Now we have a self guided tour so we'll all have to return some time.

I was hoping to be able to join them, but as I said, I was busy working. And preparing for Scott's return home as well as John's visit. Fortunately I did my grocery shopping for Turkey Day a few weeks ahead of time. There was talk about turkey shortages and rising food prices, but that did not seem to be a problem. On Weds Scott flew home from school. Allison was able to pick him up at the airport, and the four of them headed up to Hershey for a hockey game. I ended up staying home since I got out of work too late. Instead I got busy on preparing stuffing and an egg casserole for breakfast Thursday morning. The group really enjoyed the game and a trip to Candyland before hand(aka chocolate store).

I pretty much spent the next day cooking. I don't think I sat down until dinner. After preparing breakfast, I mixed up a batch of hot buffalo chicken dip and a tray of cheese and crackers for a lunch snack. Allison came over early and spent the day with us. In the meantime, we enjoyed the Macy's Thanksgiving parade and football games up until dinner time. The meal was wonderful-we all pitched in to get the food on the table and we had more than enough. We rounded out the meal with pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake. We were all stuffed and settled down for an evening of movie watching. 

On Friday I was back to work. John decided to head home early-he was trying to miss an upcoming snow storm in the mountains. On Friday Scott spent the afternoon visiting with his high school friend Matt. They stayed busy playing video games and decided to make homemade egg nog as well as baking  a Birthday cookie cake we bought him at Hershey. Saturday we celebrated Scott's 22nd birthday by catching the new Ghostbusters movie(fun) and dinner at our favorite mexican restaurant, La Palapa. Tom had baked him a pistachio pie that we had for dessert while Scott opened his gifts. On Sunday I had signed us all up for our family photo return at JCPenney studios which turned out to be the event from H-E-double toothpicks.  I signed us up for an afternoon slot to make sure we had plenty of time to get dressed and have lunch. We arrived in plenty of time to check in-the place was packed. We were told it was going to be about a 30 min wait, so we all ran off to do a little shopping. Unfortunately when we returned  the wait extended to another 45 mins at least and the crowds that had formed around the studio were asked to move out of the nearby mattress displays. There was no place to sit, and Penney recently moved all the furniture out of the area and replaced it with mattresses. We used to all sit on the couches and chairs and no one complained. So the management roped off the mattress area and put out two long rows of chairs, blocking the entrance to the studio. And when you walked into the studio, you had to put on a face mask, but could remove them for the photo. It was getting crazier and crazier as the afternoon wore on. The kids had hoped to catch an early movie-Disney's Encanto at 4pm. Unfortunately, that is about the time they called us in for our 130 appointment. We also had to worry about groups jumping ahead in line. People were getting rather agitated. There was no way the studio staff could contact you so there was no waiting around the entrance-they declined to call or text people back and certainly did not have a pager system. There really was not enough staff and only 2 studios running. I was also upset to see someone brought their dog for photos-not a service dog and not allowed during regular photo shoot sessions. If so we would have brought Cookie along. They did have time you could schedule a photo of your pet with Santa in the mall, but you had to sign up for that ahead of time. We usually just get a free dog photo with Santa at Pet Smart. Well we finally got our photo session and Allison and I edited our own family photos and  photo cards since they did not have enough people to help. We did get someone to at least ring it up, but then they lost our clipboard with my coupon. So one of the staff members put in some code and rang it up and informed me that you can no longer pick up the photos in 2 weeks, but it would probably take 3 weeks until I get them mailed to me. So the ordeal was over and the family informed me they would never return again. So much for a wonderful family tradition(at least I thought so!). Hoping the photos actually turn out. 

Since the kids missed their afternoon movie, we decided to catch some dinner, drop Tom off at home and I joined the kids at an evening showing of  Encanto(not too bad). On  Monday Tom had to drop Scott off at the airport to head back to school. It was actually cheaper for Scott to return on Monday morning and he had plenty of time to catch his afternoon class.  

Cannot believe November is over. Time to put away the Thanksgiving decorations and get out the Christmas stuff!