Hello all!
Hope everyone's Turkey Day was just as wonderful as mine!

It started Wednesday afternoon. I was able to leave the office at noon, which I did enthusiastically. Naturally, my husband couldn't get out of work until about 1:00 or so. I spent some time at Walgreens and picked up some Christmas stocking stuffers in the meantime. When we got home, the plan was to put everything in the car and start driving right away. This would get us into the valley just after sundown with enough time to relax and hang out before hitting the bed. Well, Killito had just fallen asleep when we got home at about 1:30. He woke up at the sound of our voices, and wouldn't go back to sleep unless I nursed him and lay down next to him. So I did. And because I was so tired from having stayed up the night before packing everything, I promptly fell asleep with him.
Two hours later, I woke up to the sound of drunken shouting out in the living room. Apparently, Barbara's dad had arrived with his brother in tow to pick up Barbara for her Thanksgiving trip to his house. In my sleepy haze, I realized that everyone in the house was taking a nap too and that Bob and brother had entered the house through the open garage door. In any case, I immediately got up and began loading everything in the car, furious with myself for having wasted two precious hours. I didn't want to be getting in so late. Killy, who had fallen asleep in the living room, realized the state I was in and hurried to help me. The baby was still asleep so we could take advantage of this time to load everything without his interruption.
We finally left at 4:30. The six hour trip was extended by one hour because of the two pit stops we had to give Killito a break. He was adorable, running through the Stuckies' touching all the shiny crunchy potato chip bags, throwing all the bags of peanuts on the floor and banging on the water and coke refrigerators. All sorts of women and young girls would approach him and ask to touch him, for fear of inadvertantly leaving evil eye residue on him. Sure, I'd relent, and Killito would suspiciously eye these strangers as they caressed his head and cheek. Along the way, we discussed our sleeping arrangements. Last year, my sister in law was hurt that we decided to stay at a hotel instead of at her house. She has a cute little house, but on that occasion, my parents were there and they were staying in one room. But she still felt hurt that we didn't stay with her. Killy and I decided to avoid the potentially sticky situation and sleep at the house this time thinking we would save money in doing so.
We got to my brother's house at 11:00 PM where Lina had just also arrived from shopping all day. The funny thing was, she didn't get any grocery shopping done. So Killy had to make a run to the HEB for stuffing and other miscellanies. We didn't get to bed until around midnight or so and Killito was too excited when seeing his cousins that at first, he fought like a wild cat against going to bed. But soon, I got him to sleep, and sleep he did. And he was the only one who slept.
Thursday
My brother had acquired 4 dogs during the last year. And these weren't about to be forgotten. The entire night was a welcome concert in our honor, performed by four mongrel mutts just outside our bedroom window. Poor Killy, grumbling and mumbling to keep himself sane. No sleep for us. Not only that, our family of three shared a full sized bed. A comfortable arrangement considering our other options, two couches or the floor.
I woke up at 5:00 AM made the stuffing with veggie butter and diced veggies (yummm) put the turkey in the oven and went back to bed. I woke up two hours later mortified because I didn't season the bird.
Oh Well...
We had dinner at 2:00 PM (Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes made with veggie butter and skim milk, asparagus, cranberry sauce, apple pie) with the idea that we would be visiting Lina's family at about 6:00 PM for more food. But everyone was too tired to consider that idea. We stayed home and let Lina visit her cousins and aunt without us.
Sleep was welcome but made itself scarce again. Someone clogged the guest toilet and the kids wouldn't go to bed. Killy grumbled and mumbled a little louder this night and vowed never to do this again, who cares whose feelings got hurt! He finally rolled out of bed at about 2:00 AM to try to capture sleep in the living room. I don't know what was up with those dogs, but they were at it all night long again. Killy didn't get any sleep at all. Neither did I for that matter. But I was just grateful that I could close my eyes and put my feet up for a little while.
Friday
The next day, we hurried out of there FAST!
We had strategically made breakfast plans with Killy's sisters in town. We met them at a little dive (all decent restaurants in the valley are dives) where we enjoyed YUMMY eggs and beans prepared in various ways. Killito wanted to play and talk to everyone. I was mortified that he was pestering people regardles of how cute he looked in his little cable knit sweater and corduroys. I plucked him out from between two occupied chairs at a family's table when he promptly started to scream bloody murder! I quickly took him outside to calm down. But here, it was worse, he found a particularly dangerous stairway that lead to the flat rooftop of a condemned garage building and proceeded to climb it. I plucked him off the stairs into the safety of my arms where he started to thrash about violently, gargle screaming hysterically (a gargle scream is one that is deep and rumbling and comes out much more pronounced than it could because of the raspy use of the back of the throat). I was looking mighty cute that day, I must say, wearing my long and lean Gap jeans with stilleto heels trying to calm down a wild cat baby. I quickly ran back inside the restaurant, thrashing baby in my arms, to Killy so he could help me calm him down.
We left the restaurant right away to the safety of Killy's sister's house. Baby found another staircase here and proceeded to climb up and down to his little heart's content. I stayed close on his heels in case I
needed to catch a tumbling baby. Thankfully, I didn't have to, but boy was he tired. I used a wonderful and HIGH sleigh bed to put him to sleep, for FOUR hours. He napped like an angel and I rested and read some books that were there.
When we woke up, we were hungry again, so we went to TGIF for lunch.
Baby had spaghetti and I had a steak, daddy had fish and chips (not the best food for his condition, but he enjoyed it so much, promising with each mouthful to do some exercise when we got back home).
Lunch over and done with, we retired to our HOTEL ROOM!!! for much needed peace and quiet. Here we enjoyed a complimentary cocktail and let Killito walk around the hotel lobby. Then we went back to our room where I chased Killito around for a long time, then we jumped around on the king sized bed until he was exhausted. He fell asleep hard!
Saturday
We woke up late, enjoyed a late complimentary breakfast at the hotel, then drove around to enjoy the beautiful day. Too bad the mosquitoes were out with a vengeance, otherwise we would have made our way to the park with Killito. As it was, there were too many pests flying about threatening to pimplify my baby's milky white skin so we stayed in the car while daddy photo'd at every opportunity. Lunch was yummy and bad for the arteries but Killito enjoyed his taco. We eventually made our way back on the road for the long trip home.
We got home seven hours later and after one pit stop. Luckily Killito fell asleep for the majority of the trip so he didn't get tired of his seat until we were ten minutes from home. Then he commenced his wail of supreme suffering. But we got home quickly enough.
The second we got home, he was so excited! He saw his grandma and was even more excited! There was no way he would be going to sleep anytime soon.
He explored the house making sure everything was just where he left it. Then he ran up and down the hall until he was quite sweating with glee. I took off all his clothes to cool him down and there he was, quite comfortably running around in his diaper, happy and content to be home.
Boy was this ONE CRAZY Thanksgiving...
Next year will certainly be different.
Next year, we are getting a hotel room!