Thanksgiving 2009

It’s been a looonnng time since I relished what a 4-day weekend feels like. Not having to wake up, do hair and don heels at an ungodly hour for 4 consecutive days was pure delight. A brief recap of the weekend’s events....

Wednesday night, the biggest bar night of the year, we joined the revelry at Jack’s in Spring Lake with some friends of ours. Good drinks and an even better band. Classic Fix is a fantastic classic rock cover band! These guys can perform ANYONE! Spot on covers of Journey, Van Halen, Boston, Aerosmith, Skynrd,... etc. We will most definitely follow scheduled local appearances this year and catch them again.  They play Kirby House and Jack’s pretty regularly.

{ Downtown Grand Haven all dressed up for the holidays }

Thursday morning brought the only exception of not sleeping in. I rolled out of bed, rocked a ballcap and braved the local Meijer in 24 hour old makeup to pick up our neatly packaged feast. I totally caved this year and ordered it up on Monday. They put on a mean spread for about $45. No brainer. Holiday meal-- check. 

Parents arrived around noonish and the snorgling of a certain tiny face began. Books were read. Babies were played. Puzzles were put together. 

{ This was on the table by 3. Then again at 7. Rinse, lather and repeat for the next 2 days. }

Once again my tired, bust*ss Christmas tree was taken out of storage and assembled. Once more I swore this is the final year before I put it out of its misery. Branches are snapping off left and right this time.  Evidently there is a limit to how many times the branches can be “fluffed”. B wanted to help, of course. Its a good thing it was a team effort, or else the tree would be about 3 foot tall and resemble a semicircle. That’s about how long the project had her attention.

While the rest of the crazies lined up for an early morning start to the shopping season, we stayed home and sipped hot cocoa, watched cartoons and read the paper. It was pure perfection. Later in the day moms watched B. so we could slip away to finally see New Moon, probably the first theatre experience we have had together in about 4-5 years, I’d venture to guess. Despite what the critics are saying, I thought  it was great! I may even be officially switching my alliances to Team Jacob (well, Edward was sort of a tool in this episode...)

{ Go team Jake! }

On Saturday my folks left for home and our good friends from Alabama stayed the night en route of their return trip home. It was a quiet evening relatively speaking and  a good visit. Lori and I watched Obsessed, that fatal attraction flick with Beyonce in it. Best part of the whole dang movie- Beyonce catches the psycho secretary in her (the family’s) house alone. Ensue butt kicking of one skinny blonde biatch. We laughed ourselves silly.

On Sunday with all of our company gone, we retreated to the mall for some light Christmas shopping. While strolling past the North Pole, I hoisted Barbara up to get a good look at Santa Claus... “the REAL Santa Claus” she was informed. To my utter disbelief she started to make a beeline to completely bypass the line of kids waiting and get up close and personal. My kid- the one that is forever hiding behind me in social situations and practically crawls up my backside when strangers dote on her in public. When I asked, she stated matter of factly that she wanted to see him and would not cry. $20 later we have the moment captured on Kodak Gold. She did it, folks. Sat on his lap-- talked to him-- the whole works. If I didn’t have the picture as evidence, I’d swear it never happened. 

It wasn’t 5 minutes later she was flailing on the floor of Bed, Bath and Beyond in full tantrum mode. Within earshot of the fat man. I have a new bargaining chip in my arsenal.  

Sweet.