Not sure why I picked this title - it sounds rather ominous, when in reality, Thanksgiving was wonderful. Anywhoo...
Man, that whole "clean the house on Saturday" idea was a great one. It really gave us much more time on Thanksgiving day. We actually stopped and took little breaks, and we were ready before anyone showed up! Go figure. This was the year I decided I was not going to get pissed off if people showed up early and we weren't ready. (One year they started arriving as I was stepping into the shower.) But this year our advance preparations paid off.
I picked up my niece Lauren (since she is currently sans vehicle) and my aunt Mary. When we got back, everyone else was here. I introduced Lauren to everyone then showed her around the house, since it was her first time here. Then I helped Joe "set up the buffet" (his words). We put all the food out on the kitchen counters, said Grace, and formed a line. How fortunate we are to have so many good cooks in the family. Everything was absolutely delicious and we all ate until we couldn't fit anymore inside us. Then we had dessert!
We had a lovely time, and everyone left by about 8:30. Joe, Lauren, Mary and I sat at the kitchen table and talked for another hour, and then I drove them both back to their homes. I was so glad to get back to my home, put on my flannel pajama pants and T-shirt and relax on the sofa! We watched TV together until 11:30 when Joe went to bed. I came up at midnight.
I didn't realize how tired I was, but we both slept until 11am on Friday! I don't think I've ever slept that late, even when I've been up half the night. But it felt wonderfully luxurious to sleep until I was ready to get up - no alarm clock, nothing to disturb my delicious sleep. Joe had to get up at 7:30 and let Jordan outside to pee, but then he came back to bed and fell asleep again.
Friday turned into a day of relaxation and shopping from the comfort of our TV room. As you may know, Joe is a fan of HSN (Home Shopping Network) and would watch it for hours and hours if I didn't protest. But Friday they were having their day of Christmas gift specials so we watched and shopped. We really found some great gifts at prices you couldn't beat at a regular store, even on sale or with a coupon. We got 7 Christmas gifts and never had to get dressed! In fact, we stayed in our pajamas the entire day. Around 1pm we heated up those delicious Thanksgiving left-overs for lunch, then continued watching TV and relaxing. (The main benefit of hosting Thanksgiving is having all the left-overs.) Joe even went back to bed for a nap. Around 8pm we put a frozen pizza in the oven and that was our dinner. Back to relaxing and TV watching. We never showered, we never got dressed, we never left the house. It was fabulous.
Sat we slept until 9:30, showered, dressed, and headed west. We stopped at Kerry & Hugh's and watched as Hugh and Jose installed their new stove. Its a gorgeous retro stove that looks like something from the 1920s. Then we had lunch at Five Guys, and Joe and I headed out to Front Royal for some real, in-store shopping at Big Lots. (Note: Not all Big Lots are created equal. We've been to 2 other Big Lots closer to our house and both were disappointing. If you really want a bargain shopping experience, go to the Big Lots in Front Royal.) We came home with 9 more Christmas gifts, plus several items for ourselves. It was fun! For dinner we heated up those yummy Thanksgiving left-overs and watched TV the rest of the night.
Sun we slept until 10. I watched home improvement/home decorating shows on TV and Joe surfed the internet. Then Joe washed up the last of the Thanksgiving platters and I got out the leaf blower for 'Round 2'. This time I took sinus/allergy medicine to ward off the sinus flare-up I experienced the last time I blew the leaves. It worked. Then I put away the last of the Thanksgiving paraphenalia and vacuumed the main level of the house again. Joe vacuumed upstairs. All day we kept asking each other 'What do you want to do today?' I offered a few suggestions, but Joe never said yes or no to any of them, so we just kept doing little things here and there: cleaning, putting things away, watching TV, surfing the internet, etc. Finally at 5pm it became apparent that we just weren't going to do anything else outside the house. Besides, it was dark now, and a light sprinkle was falling, so it seemed best to stay put. For the 3rd and final time, we heated up those dwindling but wonderful Thanksgiving left-overs for dinner and settled in for a relaxing night of TV. We watched several shows on Logo, which was fun.
It was a wonderful 4-day weekend, full of tasty food, family, laughter, sleep, TV watching, relaxing, and Christmas shopping. Just the way Thanksgiving should be.
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