We had such a good time in IA over Thanksgiving. We had lots of extra time due to a few work activities happening around the same time, so we were back for almost 2 weeks! When we are back since our families live within an hour of each other we find ourselves going back and forth often. However I must say we did a slightly better job of that this time and stayed put for a few days at a time.
Our trip started off 2 Tuesdays ago, on the 16th, we hit the road after work. Wed through Fri of that week were work as usual and we didn’t do anything too exciting that weekend, just spent time with both families and Jimmy was able to help his dad farming a bit, which he always enjoys.
The next week Mon and Tues were work days for me as well while Jimmy flew out to Seattle to sneak in a short work trip. Then the rest of the week we had off. Late Tuesday my sister and her family from Denver rolled in and my sister from Des Moines got in early on Wednesday. Wednesday was spent at my Grandma Davis’ place where she taught us how to make apple butter. So often over the past few years I’ve wondered who will pass along these traditions or give our children handmade gifts like our grandparents do. I really wonder if anyone will because I certainly can’t sew and while I may claim to be a decent cook I don’t know anything about canning or making things like apple butter! Regardless, we had a fun afternoon with her and I think she enjoyed the company! Then Wednesday night we headed over to the Grovers for a family dinner and hanging out before Thanksgiving. Thursday we had Thanksgiving at Jimmy’s grandparents and then headed to my brothers house to catch in on the leftovers and make the game plan for Black Friday! Let me back track a bit…Thursday morning I woke up with a terrible migraine (something not entirely out of the norm with my pregnancy) so I laid in bed a little longer in hopes it would subside, it didn’t. We headed over to Jimmy’s grandparents around noon for their Thanksgiving meal and I wasn’t feeling well at all. After just a few bites of potatoes I knew I was going to get sick and excused myself to the bathroom. Up came the potatoes – literally, just potatoes. No fun! So my Thanksgiving meal wasn’t much to write home about, I nibbled on some bread the rest of the meal and then just took it easy the rest of the afternoon.
Thursday evening we hung out with my family and got our plan of attack made for Friday morning. Jimmy headed back to his parents house and I stayed at mine so we could hit the stores bright and early. I woke up several times in the night, still not feeling well and wasn’t sure about the shopping but I decided to go despite the fact that I still had the migraine – probably not the best choice. We made several stops snagging deals despite growing frustration. While we all love to go together as a group inevitably it gets to be a long morning and I’m not a patient person so I get irritated. I think my frustration heightened while learning I’d be waiting in line at Menards for 2+ hrs! All I had to purchase was a $5 rug and $6 bath set for our nephew so I opted to leave. Of course my mom and Kristle were all up for the wait, and so my patience was tested. Thankfully my two sisters bailed me out and we headed over to the mall to get started on our lists at those stores. A few hours later we headed back to pick up Mom and Kristle and finished up our shopping. Mind you all the while my head was aching and I had the feeling I was going to throw up several times throughout the morning! Again, I probably should have staying home. Regardless, we finished up our shopping about noon (we started at 4am) and headed over to our usual lunch stop, Pizza Hut buffetJ I knew I was hungry because I hadn’t really ate anything since my Thanksgiving “meal” the day before but I didn’t want to get sick. I got a few things on my plate anyways and sat down to eat. Just two bites later I was running to the one stall bathroom banging on the door as it was occupied. Thankfully it was my mom in the bathroom and she quickly opened it for me to reach the toilet just in time. Up came the few bites of pizza and breadstick….lovely. I soon rejoined the table and actually ate a pretty good amount for the rest of our lunch without getting sick again, so weird. We headed home after that and enjoyed a low key afternoon before heading off to the Dieken Thanksgiving (my mom’s side). We enjoyed spending some time with extended family but were all tired and anxious to get home too since we had a baby shower in the morning!
Saturday morning the men headed over to my brothers house as my sisters and mom got my parents house ready for the shower. My sister is pregnant and due in January, so they knew if they didn’t do a shower over Thanksgiving that she wouldn’t be able to come. So we had a smaller baby shower with mostly family and a few family friends hosted by my sisters at my parents house and it was so much fun! The theme was “our little pumpkin” so they decorated with little pumpkins, had little foods, and played a few games related to pumpkins. As I mentioned before, it seemed so strange to be the one the baby shower was for. As I opened each gift I couldn’t believe that they were for our baby! It was great to see everyone and I felt so grateful that people could find time with the busy holiday to come to my shower. My sister’s did an awesome job hosting it and coming up with the ideas and we got some great gifts too! Among my favorites were our high chair that should be delivered this week!, a scrapbook made by my MIL and SIL – Robin, Jena, and Jalissa, and a few super cute stuffed animals. After the shower we spent some time at my parents and said goodbye to my sister and her family as they left to make the trek back to Denver. It’s always so hard to say goodbye after spending some time together, especially when you know that life will change things before the next time you see each other. We will head out to Denver in early March to meet their newest addition and they will then be a family of 4, and then the next time we will see each other we will have our own baby and be a family of 3! But we always have a good time together which makes those times so much better and something to look forward to! Once they hit the road we hung out for a bit longer and then headed to the Grovers to stay the night before heading back to MO ourselves on Sunday.
Saturday night his sister’s had some friends over and we were able to all have dinner together, play the Wii, and some board games. We always have fun at the Grovers too. They enjoy just being together as well, no matter what we are doing, and it’s really refreshing to be a part of 2 families that genuinely enjoy one another’s company.
Then Sunday we hit the road just after breakfast so we could get home at a decent time. Jimmy hurt his back again while we were back so he wasn’t looking forward to the long car ride and after being gone so long we were ready to get home. The drive actually went by fairly quickly and we were able to get home and do a few things before hitting the sack and get ready for the work week.
We have a busy busy month of December between work trips, a tropical Christmas with the Grovers (more to come), and then Christmas in IA. Which means I need to be on top of things and get all our Christmas shopping done by this weekend! I got a great start on Black Friday and think I can pretty easily find what I need this week and weekend but we will see. I love love Christmas and everything about Christmas so I want to have some time to just enjoy the holiday too, but I have a feeling that won’t come until vacation on the 17th!
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and/or friends too!
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