thanksgiving recap

thanksgiving has come and gone and i survived. parts of it were great, parts of it were ho-hum but none of it was horrible.

we loaded up the car a little before noon on thanksgiving day to go to my folks' house. we'd gotten up and watched some of the parade with the kids and then the hubs and i had some stress-relieving sex. oddly enough this is a bit of a habit for us. if we're hosting or going to an event, we have sex beforehand. i think it is either to mark our territories (not the case w/ going to my parents' house) or stress relief. the hubs was disappointed that one of the toys i'd ordered from that party i went to a few weeks ago hadn't come in yet, a remote control, wireless bullet.

we got to their house and it was clean (my mom had taken off all week to get ready for this day, and yet every time i heard anything about it my sister was the one doing the cleaning). my dad came out of his den to say hello and then vanished again. the hubs set up his infrared turkey cooker in the backyard and started cooking the bird. (we watched food, inc. the night before. if you haven't seen it, watch it. really. also watch super size me. we've watched both in the last week and they've left an impression on me; however, i don't recommend watching either the night before thanksgiving.) the hubs sat in the den for a little while to chat with my dad, but he said all he talked about was what was on tv. the only time my dad came out was to eat and then he went back to watching tv. apparently he has realized he's been depressed for quite awhile so that is his excuse for the lact of interaction this time around.

almost two years ago my mom hired my sister's husband to paint the inside of her house. she still had not hung anything back on her walls except family pictures in her hallway that make me crazy. i am not ocd, but, she hung about 6-8 pictures down her hallway and didn't consider spacing at all; there isn't equal space between the pictures, they're all hanging crooked, it drives me nuts. after sitting in the bare-walled living room most of the day i asked her where her picture were and the hubs and i hung some stuff in her living room. half of the nails were still on the walls (who paints and leaves nails where they were?) so it's not like it was a big deal. and? she has some of the ugliest pictures. really.

my kids were pretty good playing w/ my niece and nephew. i know they get on my kids' nerves because they are whiners and annoying, but my kids were great. the boy did start getting pissed off because my nephew kept asking if they were spending the night at my mom's house too. he asked over and over and over again. drove us all nuts. i'd already told my mom no. frankly, neither of my kids wanted to stay there though of course i'm not going to say, 'my kids don't want to spend any more time than they have to w/ this niece and nephew, and, even if they weren't staying the night, they really don't have any desire to spend the night w/ you.' part of me would love to say that to my mom because that's her crop---she's reaping what she sowed w/ my kids. basically ignore them for a decade and this is the relationship you end up w/. but, that would make it my kids issue and i'd rather not do that. instead all she knows is that we said no.

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for several days the hubs had been talking about the black friday sales. he has always worked on black friday so we have never done the get up at the butt-crack of dawn thing and go shopping. we have both been in moods lately....those lying beneath the surface moods....he has been thinking about the future and has figured out that if i don't get a job by then, march will be the month that the bottom drops out of the sky; things will get really bad starting in january, but march will be our end. i have been thinking about the dwindling bank account, the bills that need paid, the christmas gifts, etc. i tell you this because most people in this situation would not want to go out shopping; the hubs responds differently. he wanted to experience the day. i put a spending cap on the day (which we didn't meet because we didn't buy one single thing.) it was doomed from the start really. the girl and i went to bed at 1:30am. the boy and the hubs pulled an all nighter. they got us up around 3:30am. we were at the first store around 4:20am. we hit a total of three stores and were home and back in bed by 6am. the girl bitched the entire time.

after our naps the hubs started getting out the outdoor christmas decorations and later we went to my bro's for dinner. since they'd spent thanksgiving w/ my sil's family this was like "our" thanksgiving w/ them. we ate and tried to see who could outdo who w/ quotes from forrest gump and then we watched elf. it was my second time this week. i love that movie.

yesterday the girl met some friends at the movies to see harry potter again. this was the first time we've ever dropped her off, left the theater completely and come back for her. when she got home we decorated the christmas trees. i can't believe we're already this far into the year. i cannot believe another christmas is here and i don't have a job.