Hey, wha' happen?

It's a strange day when I'm decorating for Christmas and jamming to Blues Traveler...

When I finish decorating I'm headed to the mall since I didn't get to shop yesterday. Hospitals don't close you know.

The Fam

Emily wanted a family pic of the six of us. I think we all look pretty good, but maybe we should take another one at Christmas so we are all prepared.

Oh-PAH!!! have some ouzo.

I’m excited for tonight because it’s one of the more fun nights of the year in hubby’s hometown. Most people are home for the holiday but don’t usually have a family obligation which means everyone is free to go OUT. Contrary to popular belief, I do enjoy hanging out with hubby’s friends and I do enjoy going to a smoke-free bar. I do not enjoy smelly clothes, hair and dry eyeballs from smoke.

I’m also ready for tomorrow morning at the K household, which is a now a tradition for us, since we’ve gone for the last 4 years. For some reason, I feel like I have to dress to impress at this event, but not really the rest of the day. Maybe because it’s non-family at this event and since I’m not part of the original group I still feel like I need to prove myself. So my outfit is chosen and may be a little “over-dress” but too bad because I think I look really good in it. AND I get to wear my new cute boots with this outfit.

This move affects the family pet too.

Is everyone still watching the puppies?

I think I should probably put a camera on my mom's belt so we can watch General all day as he follows her around the house. He is so completely spoiled that last weekend in Carbondale he would not be still unless he was sitting on either of our laps. He used to nap in another chair - the chair that squeaks when it rocks and came from Grandma S's house. He preferred to be solitary so that no one bothered him while he slumbered. Now that he is a grand-dog full-time, he refuses to sit anywhere but a comfy warm lap.

I'm afraid he's also getting used to grandma taking him out every 20 minutes and that when we move into our own house, his little bladder is going to have a rude awakening when little General is forced to hold it for 8 hours at a time.

The boys

Good thing I put my scarves and gloves on the table there for these 2 cats to lay on all day today.

After dinner, mom and I went in search of some brie for a dish I'm making for the annual party we go to Thursday morning pre-Thanksgiving festivities. Most people bring some sort of finger food or dip. So I found a Paula Deen recipe for Sugared Nut Brie.

Incase anyone else is looking for brie, don't go to ShopNSave. Dierbergs is the way to go. They not only had brie, but several options to choose from.

My dad, the kid

This is the sight I see when I come home from work sometimes. My dad pulls in a chair from the kitchen and sits really close to the TV to play playstation like an eight year old boy. I find this hilarious. The photo is kinda dark, taken with my phone, but you get the idea.

Turkey Time

Wow. I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving this week. It seems like just a couple of weeks ago I moved my clothes into my parents house preparing to stay there for a month tops. I didn't even bring a sweatshirt or jacket with me because I just knew our house would sell as fast as my parent's sold their house 15 years ago (in one week). I thought for sure we'd be moved into our new house by now.

While it's depressing that we haven't sold our house, I'm still excited for all the other things happening in my life. The job is still awesome. I love this time of year because I love spending time with both sides of my family. I'm disappointed that we won't be able to see hubby's family for Thanksgiving, but we will be there for Christmas Eve. It just didn't work out time-wise for us to be at both our family's turkey times, and since we skipped out on my family last year, we won't be at his family's this year. Plus I have to work on Friday, so it's better if I'm in STL Thursday night.

I'm assuming that hubby's family will continue the new xmas present exchange game we did last year - being a rob your neighbor/white elephant sort of thing instead of drawing names, which they did previous to that. So our presence at Thanksgiving is not needed for that purpose. However, my family is now implementing a name-drawing exchange for the first time, so we probably need to be there since we have experience in that department.