Thanksgiving....

This Thanksgiving was fantastic. A very relaxed dinner at my mom's house - filled with much mirthful goodness and quality time with the fam - kicked off a great 4-day weekend. Since the kids now far outnumber the parents in the family, we had a blast at the "kid" table making a paparazzi-inspired combo of all of the last names represented (Persanfidialaberto-Shuggallen for those of you who are wondering) and conspired to harass Steve (Shugg, not Dial) while he was on-air Thursday afternoon. We almost called in to request Rick Astley on The Edge, which would make about as much sense as using grape jelly to season your macaroni and cheese. It would have been good for getting crazy laughs from all the people in the family who watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, though.

Jess, mom, and I went out on Black Friday to do some Christmas shopping. We started at 8:30 am and were done by 11:00 am after going to only 4 stores. I finished my shopping completely without my highly structured system (don't need it when there are only 5 people to buy for), Jessi got 90% of her shopping done (her estimate), and mom got a new Christmas tree. The best part was we all spent waaaay less than we expected. After the shopping, I met up with Steven for a lunch date at In-n-Out Burger. Aside from the insanely crowded parking lot, we had a great time. When I got home, feeling empowered and inspired by my amazing shopping experience that morning, I got the entire house decorated and wrapped all the gifts in less than 3 hours. I got ready for a wedding and watched my friends Kelly and Steven get married. There are a lot of funny moments from the reception, mainly from comments made by me about needing to sit by the space heaters because "I'm not wearing any pants" (I was wearing a dress).

Saturday Steven and I got an early start and got all the Christmas lights up before lunch. It was scary watching Steven precariously balance at the top of the ladder, but there were no injuries and we only broke one bulb (which we replaced). Saturday afternoon we did another Thanksgiving dinner with Steven's parents and his brothers. We watched Hollywoodland Saturday night and just relaxed. It was great.

Sunday morning we finally made it to the gym to start working off the extra calories. We did a little bit of errand running, then came home and got together with the Erlandsons, who are in town for a week. It was nice to see them after spending a few days with them back in August when we went to Kansas City. We felt rested and restored after 4 wonderful days off. It's strange to be back at work after such a nice, long, much-needed weekend. Only 24 more days until Christmas!!