Why yes, I had a four day weekend.

Why no, I had no time to blog.

Four day weekends always look long and vast on the front side, but then find themselves packed, end to end.

Ours was filled with preparing for the next holiday (before even celebrating the current one, Holiday Liberalists that we are,)

Hanging Ornaments

Practicing new skills,

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putting those skills to use,

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(very proudly might I add,)

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Having The Worst Dessert-Making Experience of my life, to be expounded upon at a later date (assuming the nightmares subside and the memories become bearable,)

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Getting grandparents to show off their reading skills,

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(And Great-Grandparents too,)

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Capturing poignant, keepsake-worthy photographs of the kid’s table at Thanksgiving Dinner,

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I titled this one “Thankfulness Abounds”:

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Making a Bingo game for the adults – to make our Thanksgiving meal “traditions” a little more amusing, humiliating, and palatable,

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Dumping the kids on the grandparents and fleeing town for an overnight date in Tuscaloosa,

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Enduring a shocking temperature shift (note that kids were in shorts in prior photos) while tailgating with good friends,

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(Who incidentally make me look taller than I am and Chris look shorter than he is,)

Observing the various strategies of 100,000+ people finding ways to keep the frostbite at bay,

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(It got down into the FORTIES, y’all!!  Alabama people aren’t made to be outdoors in such conditions!)

Eating traditional tailgating chicken wings, then leaving the traditional bones in the traditional tree to allow them to add calcium all winter long…and then documenting someone else documenting said tradition,

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Then resuming our role as parents, only to find out that our children didn’t even remember to think about us while we were gone – because Grandparents are way more fun.

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So yeah.  It was a busy weekend.

How did you fill your Long Weekend?

18 thoughts on “Filled to the Brim.

  1. We were just as busy! Cranberry sauce and fruit tray for the big day. Friday: vet, lunch, quick trip to Dollar Tree, new tires. Saturday: donuts, taking the little one to the park for roller skating, a quick trip to the zoo, watching the Tide Roll and then date night at Hot and Hot (I won a gift certificate during Restaurant Week!), with AJ unexpectedly spending the night with her grandparents. Then Sunday: church and choir practice (complete with a kid meltdown), coloring, shopping and visiting my granddad. Kind of glad to get back to work and school routines today. Fun is exhausting!

    1. I was looking forward to getting back into a routine last night…but routine has equaled “rough reentry to reality” so far, so maybe a couple more days of vacation wouldn’t be so bad…

  2. Two Thanksgivings (Thurs & Fri each with different sides of the family). Setting up the Christmas tree. Rearranging 3 rooms of furniture in an attempt to get ready for the baby/make room for the play kitchen & kid’s table Eli will get for Christmas/get messy toy storage out of the main living area. Oh, and church on Sunday, and giving Eli his first Mama-given haircut which I only partially botched. Four days went way too fast but it was good to spend time with loved ones and great to have a few major jobs accomplished!

    Love your BINGO idea. So what did they do when you wouldn’t eat turkey as a child?

    1. It’s that family story that won’t die – you know the type? I refused to eat Turkey as a child, so they would fix me a special plate of “chicken” in the kitchen, and I loved it.

      (And of course, it was turkey.)

  3. Why would you think the kids would even think about you when they are with grandma and grandpa…silly girl. Did you think of them? Please tell me “no” and that you just had a good time even if it was in the 40’s.

    Cute idea the bingo game.

  4. I love the bingo game! That should be something every family must do at each holiday (although some of ours would be a little more inappropriate).

    We used to have a kid table, too! (which I sat at until my knees no longer fit) – oh memories!

    The suspense for “Having The Worst Dessert-Making Experience of my life” is killing me! I hope the nightmares and hauntings of it dissipate quickly so we can all revel in your hilarious life!

  5. Thanksgiving with my family (Parents, sister, brother in law, and 2 nephews). trying to keep up with all the things my 4 year old nephew wanted to play. Friday tried to rest and catch up on laundry not so sucessful. Saturday another day of entertaining my 4 yr old nephew while trying to help my mom watch the 11 month old one while everyone else did yard work. Yesterday helped decorate the Christmas tree, play Wii with my 4 yr old nephew and keep my 11 month one out of the Christmas tree while my sister ran errands.

  6. We had a five day weekend and it went way too fast! Love the bingo! That’s hilarious that your parents tricked you into eating turkey. :) Great picture of you and Chris! Your friends have quite the height difference! I always think those couples are cute. :) can’t wait to hear the cake pop story!

  7. looks like you had a fantastic time. it sure was nice to have my husband home for days and days on end. love it. we had turkey time, a family pizza movie night (a 5 day rental of madagascar 3 which we are still getting use of – right now in fact), tree hunting in the hills, tree setting up-age, NO sunday school (wahoo!), kids helping daddy cut wood for our fireplace (i got to stay home and try not to fall asleep) and some bad pizza last night from a restaurant. i should just stick to mine.

    oh, and i love the bingo idea. your family is full of cleverness. i think mine doesn’t have it :)

  8. Love the Bingo game! I will have to do that for our family gathering at Christmas time.
    I have a special “Chicken” story. My 6 yr old will not eat beef. No steaks, beef stew, hamburgers – anything beef. Except for my roast – she has always called it chicken and I have never corrected her. :-)

  9. That sounds like such a fun holiday! You’re kids are adorable! And I love that you were with lots of family! My Thanksgiving was very simple, a little too simple for my taste. I wish I could still be wearing shorts, but I live in Utah and it hasn’t been shorts weather for a month now. I’ve never been to Alabama, but if the temperatures don’t go much below forties, I should move there. I hate the cold!

    1. It gets colder as the winter goes on, but never very cold. And we have weird weather – it will be warm a week, then cold a week all winter long. You never get tired of anything, but you also never get used to anything!

  10. I’m so jealous..sigh..there are not enough holidays involving turkey here sadly only Christmas and even then most people have seafood.. there’s what about 4weeks till Christmas? ..Sigh..

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