This year for Thanksgiving we decided to do something unusual: not travel. A quiet, long weekend at home for a change. It wasn't quite the relaxing time I envisioned, but it was still nice to be home.
Wednesday night we went shopping for a new Christmas tree, artificial of course. We had been using only a four foot table-top tree previously, but we gave it back to my mom after last year. We figured we'd need to graduate to a bigger tree this year with Punky getting older and more excited about Christmas. We ended up buying a seven foot, pre-lit tree, but it's on the narrow side. Space is definitely an issue in this house.
We went to his mom's on Thursday for Thanksgiving dinner, but it's only three miles away and we were only there about two hours. Punky was dying to get home and decorate the new Christmas tree. We had originally planned that for Friday's project, because only crazy people go shopping that day, but her enthusiasm convinced us to get the ball rolling.
We spent the next six hours assembling and decorating the tree, unpacking and displaying my vast snowman collection, scattering other random Christmas decorations around the house, cleaning up the huge mess we made in the process, and drinking beer. Us, not Punky, on that last one. Alcohol is a rarity in this house, but two hours in to the decorating devastation, he ran out for a six pack. Good thing the tree was pre-lit or we may have needed a twelve. When we finished, the house looked nice, Punky was happy with our new Christmas tree, and I was a bit buzzed.
Friday, which should have then been a lazy day with the decorating all done, turned into a busy one as well. I tackled all the necessary chores like laundry and cleaning bathrooms and balancing checkbooks, and he decided to cook our own mini Thanksgiving dinner since his oldest son and his girlfriend were coming to visit. They stayed until almost eleven that night.
We planned to do some shopping on Saturday, but my sister called early and said they were coming up for the day. They arrived about three hours later and stayed till nine. The kids destroyed the house, but they had a great time. Punky adores my nephew, and has to do everything he does, but the tide changed a bit this visit. My nephew spent a good amount of time playing with legos by himself, and Punky played with my niece more than she ever has. Every chance they had, the two of them jumped like monkeys on the bed in Punky's room, and we had our first indication of exactly how much trouble they are going to be together as they get older. They are only seventeen months apart, and in another year or so, that age gap will seem like nothing. I can only imagine the phone conversations my sister and I will have when they are fifteen and sixteen. I don't even want to think about it.
As much as I wanted a day to sit home and relax, with no cleaning, no company, and no showering, we headed to the mall today. We really needed to tackle more shopping, plus it was the perfect opportunity to get the yearly Santa photo. As usual, I was a bit nervous as we approached the the red guy. Even though she never freaked out or cried before, there's always a first. A year had passed since her last encounter with Santa, and she has a better understanding now, and her two-year-old personality seems to go from one extreme to the other these days. I was prepared for the worst.
And once again, I worried for nothing. There were no kids in line ahead of us, and she ran right to him with open arms. Lots of hugs for Santa, and she talked his ear off while we were busy choosing which incredibly over-priced photo package to purchase. The pictures were beautiful though, and we actually had a hard time choosing between the four shots they took.
And when Santa asked the magic question, she gave him the same enthusiastic response she gave us: "A trampoline, Santa! I want a trampoline!" She even did the boingy fingers for him, too.
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