Turkey Celebration Madness

Folks it's been quite the three weeks! Thanksgiving started everything and from there time has just been flying by! Thanksgiving was quite fun and more intimate than we'd expected. Originally, we were hosting and 2 of our good friends were coming to share the holiday with us. We split the cooking so that it was less work on both of us. On my cooking list I had a turkey pinwheel lined and stuffed with Grandma's stuffing and Grandma's peach cobbler. Simple enough, 3 things! My dear friend was planning to bring green beans, sweet potato casserole and an especially secret Oreo pie recipe made by her husband. After all the grocery shopping, cleaning, and cooking we were finally ready and boy were we tired. Our dear friends little baby girl, Addy, fell ill and so we mutually decided to celebrate in our own homes to prevent the spread of sickness. BUTTTTTT, we'd all ready split the menu so we met up on the day of and swapped hefty portions of each dish we'd made. Then, we both went home and enjoyed our dinners. Things were absolutely YUMMY! We were sad we couldn't entertain our friends, particularly since we are moving from this area very soon. But, having a quiet Thanksgiving to ourselves proved to be very nice and intimate. After all, who knows how many holidays in the future he'll spend with the Marines and NOT with me. Sooooo it was very special indeed! Plus, baby girl was there too and BOY did she love the food! She kept telling Mommie to eat again and again and again.

After Thanksgiving I conked out. I seriously refused to move for at least 48 hours afterwards. Lets not talk about what the kitchen looked like on Friday and Saturday! As usual, I hadn't realized just how much work it was and just how tired I was. Not to mention I'm in that pregnancy phase where sleep is a luxury. Sometimes you get and many times you don't. Folks...many ... most... practically consistently...I do NOT get a good nights rest. But, that's ok! No complaints here. It'll all be worth it in a few several weeks.

December 1 rolled around and it was one of those days that seemed to go by too quickly. I had this lofty idea that I'd make my husband his favorite meal for our anniversary and then we'd swap gifts and enjoy a quiet evening together. My entire schedule was thrown out of whack when I realized I could not sleep the night of Nov.30. I tossed and turned and slept for a whopping TWO hours from 1-3a.m. Around 7 a.m. I finally fell asleep and let my body rest as long as possible. When I got up, I rushed out the door to the store to get the ingredients for Grandma's homemade lasagna. The store trip was quite trying. It was just one of those days. I felt rushed and unprepared. I was tired and hungry...and SLEEPY! Lest we not forget I'm pregnant so I walk slow and I don't bend down very much. The trip was 30 minutes of really pushing myself to not just run (well walk quickly) out the store crying! Instead I pushed through and hurried home. I got home, so satisfied with what I'd accomplished thus far - a trip to the store! Quite the feat for my energy level at that moment!!! I began unwrapping my groceries to begin cooking only to realize I'd FORGOTTEN THE MAIN INGREDIENT IN THE LASAGNA - Ricotta cheese. This is when I broke down. Tears, frustration, the desire to kick rocks...all these emotions flooded my mind. As I cried I realized he'd be home in just 2 hours. So, I put a different dinner on the stove. Oh well, I thought...he'll be disappointed but he'll understand. I felt sooooo sad. My new dinner option was cooking but I wasn't satisfied so I decided to reach out to friends. I made calls explaining my sob story to my dear friends emphasizing that a big fat NO CAN DO is totally appropriate for what I was asking. Lo and behold, one of my dear friends popped into the store, grabbed my cheese and brought it over JUST in time for me to throw the best dang lasagna I've ever made together and put it in the oven before hubby got home! Oh how I'm going to miss my girlfriends when we move. Dinner with husband was wonderful. The gifts and food was the cherry on top. Along with his gift was a card, that he evidently spent a long time picking out. By line 2, I was in tears (again that day!). It's sitting by my bed now. I absolutely love it. He really liked his anniversary gift as well. I got him a pretty snazzy pilot's watch that measures all these things I don't understand from in the air while you're flying a plane! Very fitting, I thought. To top it all off, I slept like a baby that night!

The next day proved to be much much much less frustrating. It was his birthday and with his favorite meal left overs in the fridge, I felt very prepared. My husband isn't big on birthdays. He didn't even want to tell anyone at his work! My lips were sealed. But for a split second it did cross my mind to send a singing telegram to his office. Can you imagine?! My husband had been begging me to open the gifts my grandmother got him since Thanksgiving! I'd stuck to my firm NO sir. Finally though I knew he'd be thrilled to find out what she bought him. After all gifts were open, dinner was had, and he'd come to terms with being 26 years old...another great surprise popped up that made his day! His dad happen to be in the area and wanted to get together and hang out. This was the perfect end to his birthday. I know he misses his parents terribly and the fact that his dad was doing business about 45 minutes away on his birthday was the cat's pajamas! After hubby left to see his dad and hang out for a bit, my best friend and I went maternity shopping. After 4 hours of shopping, I ended up with a few cute things that fit my new body properly and back home in bed with a cute Marine.

Whew...up next...moving!