Thanksgiving Week

We took the week off from letters for the holiday, so L will pick up again this week. But, we still had some fun, so here's what we did:
Check out my candy finds from WalMart:

Love it! I have the Edward and Bella ones from Twilight too, this year I picked up a Jacob one so I could eat one, LOL. Lowell can't figure out why I would buy candy I don't intend to eat. Turns out, not very good but they are still fun. They shimmer in the light and there's even an I heart EC one :) The chocolate just must be eaten so of course I did. And then I proceeded to analyze it to death. Jacob's square was peanut butter (rough and warm), Bella's was vanilla creme, and Edward's (that's the Cullen crest in case you are wondering) was caramel, rich and smooth. And it turns out I prefer chocolate and caramel just barely over chocolate and peanut butter. But it is close, a tough choice. Mmm . . .now I want another one. Sigh, I am just getting to the good part of the book again so it has been on my mind all day. As a Christmas gift I asked Lowell to read the book and then go see it in the theater with me--we'll see how that turns out.

On to our holiday--we started at Lowell's parent's house for dinner #1. Here are my cutie monkeys in their Thanksgiving duds (Davis loves Mickey). And that's as far as I got. Just then I got called into work and was there for the entire dinner. Sometimes it's a bummer to work in a lab. Lots of perks but draw backs too. And yes, this happens every year.
Luckily this year we were also eating with my family after I was done being on call. Here is the massive amount of food I won from Harvest Restaurant. We all ate until we were stuffed and everyone still took a big pan full of food home. We're having left-overs tonight in fact. P.S. They make the best ranch ever! C and D holding my nephew Jonny, he seems thrilled. Hillary and Cyndel with all the yummy food (and my lovely china, so nice to pull it out once in a while, and nothing even got broken!) The crew eating This year we are starting the tradition of The Elf on the Shelf. If you haven't heard of it, it is story and this little elf friend. He sits on a shelf and notes if the kids have been good or bad and then reports each night to Santa. Each day he is in a new spot and the kids have loved looking for him each morning. Definitely the first thing they do. Here Davis is talking to him, telling him what he wants for Christmas so he can relay it to Santa. I picked this up at the Emporium at Thanksgiving Point if you are looking for one. The best part of all that food for the boys (who maybe took 2 bites--not big on eating these two) was playing in the boxes the food came in. After dinner we visited, checked and re-checked the ads, played Toy Story Mania on the wii (love it!) and I got Jonny to fall asleep, sweet. Then I headed over to my parent's to be close to the internet. Rumor had it that WalMart would be releasing their Black Friday deals online but no one knew the time for sure. I checked each hour and it turns out 2 am was the winner. I scored a bunch of great stuff all without fighting the crowds. Well, not that crowd anyway . . . Here's lovely Hillary and I before we headed out at 3:30 am. She went to WalMart for me, for those items not on the online sale and was such a trooper to wait in line and pick everything up for me, much of which were her own Christmas gifts. I waited in the cold outside Target with what seemed like 1,000 other people. I was about 2/3rds the way back in the line and it seemed certain I would not get what I came for but after literally running through the store and diving for the last of one item I wanted, I really got almost all of it. One item was missing, but I actually found it there on Saturday. Score for me! Then we met my parent's at Kohl's (they had been at Shopko) and then had breakfast. Back in bed by 7:30, successful morning. :)

Besides that I have just been working a lot, which was good because I managed to get my artscow stuff done and ordered in time for the deadline today (to guarantee shipping by Christmas, they ship from Hong Kong). Check out my photo book: http://www.artscow.com/share/s6zarrghs065 Even with 39 pages I couldn't fit in their birthday this year. Usually I go Thanksgiving to Halloween but no luck. I had made an entire book for their b-day though (and the Disney trip) so that will have to do. Now on to the video . . .

Speaking of videos, here are the boys doing a board breaking at karate. They certainly thought it was pretty cool. The bummer was that the price to continue was way beyond what I was willing to spend. Yikes! Good news is I talked to my kid brother who is a black belt and even has experience teaching kids and we are arranging a class where he'll teach the bubbas. Yippee! If you are interested, let me know.

There you have it . . .oh and hooray for an amazing win for the cougars this week. I was so scared at the end but thrilled at the outcome. Pllllbbt Ute fans!