On Weds, Tom, Allison and Scott were all home during the day. I took advantage of the kids being off school to have them go to the dentist. Afterwards, Tom took the kids and our friend John up to Hershey to see a hockey game. They all had a great time(even though the weather was not so great). We had our first real snow that day. Much too early in the year for us. I had to work that day, so I was home busy cooking and cleaning Weds night and getting ready for Turkey Day. I had a full, long weekend scheduled for everyone.
On Thursday morning we skipped the 5K walk/run at the YMCA. Allison was still recuperating from her ankle sprain/strain(it looked pretty bad last week). We had hoped to participate in our neighborhood canned food drive and fun walk/run, but for some reason it was cancelled. Instead, everyone slept in while I continued cooking. When the kids got up, I put them to work in the kitchen. Allison made several batches of cookies-pumpkin spice and maple bacon sugar cookies(those were incredible-tasted like pancakes). Scott made the sweet potatoe casserole. Tom cooked the turkey on the grill. I had all the stuffings, mashed potatoes, jello, asparagus and a special pumpkin spice pie for Scott's Birthday. Yes, he had another Thanksgiving Birthday(two so far in his lifetime). He is a big 15 year old. I cannot believe it!
I then sent Allison off to pick up my parents from their apartment. We all enjoyed watching the Lions football game and then talking to my brother Dan and brother Mike via Skype on the computer. After dinner I sat with my mom and helped her fill out her Christmas cards as well as "We've Moved" cards. We were all pretty exhausted and quite stuffed ourselves! We never even made it to dessert as we were all so full. Scott did get to open his birthday gifts too. Tom set him up with a new computer system and he had several new video games to keep him busy over the weekend.
On Friday morning we headed over to the Target portrait studio for our annual Holiday Family photo shoot. The worst part is the waiting. Even though we have an appointment, they always run behind at the holidays. While we were waiting, one of the customers in front of us recognized Tom from a class he was teaching at Morgan State University(small world). We were just impressed that they had squeezed so many people in their party into such a small studio(about 12 or more people!). And we just had our little group of 4. We seem to have started a tradition of wearing our favorite team shirts(you will have to wait for the Christmas card to see whose team we went with this year).
After our photo shoot, we headed out to lunch at our new Buffalo Wild Wings and then hit the movie theaters. Allison had been waiting to see Big Hero 6. We all really enjoyed it. Especially the initial cartoon before the movie. It reminded us of our Cookie dog. After that movie, we had dinner, dropped Scott off at his exercise class, and then I picked him up with his friend and we all went to see another movie "The Hunger Games" Sequel. I think the boys were a bit disappointed in this movie, but I have sat through all the Twilight movies and dealt with it(a whole lot of build up to the next movie). I decided to ask Scott's friend to spend the night so he could have a Video game partner. Allison was busy working on a school project online with a classmate. Plus Scott did not really do much for his birthday this year. They boys had a great time staying up late and playing video games.
On Saturday morning we were busy putting away Thanksgiving decorations and pulling out Christmas decorations. Scott and his friend had one last video battle before his friend headed home. In the afternoon I decided to take the kids down to the National Zoo for Zoolights. Our family tried to go down there last year, and it was literally "a zoo". We never found parking and it was solid people. So Tom skipped this year's attempt. However, I planned ahead this year and found close parking, prepaid and Allison drove us in her little Honda Fit. We got there just before the sunset and lights were already on. The parking was at a nearby hotel garage, just a few blocks walk from the zoo. It was not crowded and we had a great time walking around the animal displays and seeing all the lights. Plus as members we got a special snack including cupcakes, salted choc.chunk caramel brownies and real hot chocolate with melted chocolate. Yum(we went back for seconds). And Tom missed out. But he was happy with his football(lots of football). Yeah MSU, sorry UofM.
On Sunday, Scott served mass and we checked out the Church Holiday gift bazaar. Allison was packing up to head back to school along with her St Nick's day bag and some holiday decorations.This year she does not have much time to spend at school before the holiday break, so we kept the decorations small. Scott got busy on his homework, and I spent the afternoon at my parent's apt singing Holiday songs with the Girl Scout choir(I got us a spot on their entertainment list). We did not have a huge group, but we did a terrific job(I thought) and had all the residents singing along. Including my parents. Afterwards I got busy helping them decorate their apt for Christmas including putting up a tree and their manger. I also dropped off items to decorate their door with the staff.
So overall, quite a jam packed weekend of activities! Lots of fun!
And another Happy Birthday goes out to Sheila Bozyk who celebrated her special day on Friday, Nov 28th!
Now starts all the fun! Kathleen
One of my favorite Bday gifts!
No comments:
Post a Comment