Turkey, Friends, and Tree

What a great 5 days off I have had! So sad to think it's coming to an end. I think I have squeezed out every second of it though.

Friday we had a blast at the MOA. We were there from 11:00 until 7:30 which I can honestly say is the longest I have ever spent at that mall! The kids rode ride after ride, we ate lunch, and then rode some more rides! We went to the fourth floor and saw Planet 51 and then we went back and the kids rode one last ride before we left to go home. We were all exhausted and my feet and legs were killing me. I figured it was a good work-out to counteract all that food I intended on eating the next day!

Thanksgiving was nice. We ate lunch with my family. Mom made all the regular foods and the whole family was there. Lunch was excellent, as always. After spending a few hours, we worked our way over to Mike's family Thanksgiving. We hung out there for a few hours and reminded ourselves how wonderful it is to have such great families. And it's perfect that they both live within about 8 blocks of each other!

Friday Mike got up and joined the crazy people at Walmart to get Connor his DS for Christmas. Mike can't pass up a deal. Myself, I enjoy my sleep too much and would have never missed out on precious slumber to save $30. He said the people were insane at the store. He also had to work that day, poor guy (whoever made up the saying "bankers hours" was never a banker nor were they married to one. It's like retail, they are always open). I lounged around home and did some organizing. Felt good to have no plans. I had been battling a headache all day and it was nice to rest and not have to go anywhere.

Friday night we hung out with our friends Tammy and Paul (the ones we went to Chicago with last summer)and another friend of mine, Leslie and her husband Tom. We went out to eat and had great food, had a few cocktails (try a purple haze at Torey's Owatonna people), and visited. We went to a local bar and had another drink and just talked after supper and it was so nice to just hang out with people I don't hardly get to see. Friends are so important to me, it was just a great night.

Saturday we debated....should we go and look at a Tahoe in Wayzata? Or do we go and cut our Christmas tree? Such a hard decision, but in the end we decided on the tree! We would like to get rid of the van, although we love it, because we need something to haul the boat next summmer. We inherited this boat when Mike's dad passed away, and we have nothing to haul it with. The bottom line is we really don't want a larger car payment than we already have, so even though we would like to be able to haul the boat without having to borrow my parents truck....it's just not meant to be. Maybe in 6 months we will feel differently and we will consider a new vehicle. We will see.

The weather continues to be amazing. We cut our tree with sweatshirts on. In Minnesota? Unheard of this time of year....it was awesome. Our goal was to find a small tree this year. Our livingroom is small. There just isn't room for a big tree.

Decisions, decisions.

Connor checking out the prices

This one looks pretty good!

The cut begins. I think Connor is hilarious in this picture...doesn't want to miss a thing.

Success!

Noah can handle this one.

While brother was doing man-labor, small brother had found a stick.

Which makes a great bat to hit weeds.

After I get the lights on (DREAD this job. UGH!) the kids are such great helpers at getting the balls hung. It goes quickly once they jump in and help.

DECORATING:

Love the tongue.

The masterpiece!

As much as I hate Sunday's arrival, I love watching the Vikings and my favorite show Brothers & Sisters is on Sunday night as well. So, I will savor every last millisecond of my 5 days off and take a deep breath to get through these weeks in December until I get to my next period of consecutive days off.

Hope you had wonderful holiday weekend.