Happy Thanksgiving!

The night before Thanksgiving used to a big 'party' night. It probably still is, but we're much too old for that now. Instead, we rented the family movie "UP" and got take out for dinner and ate downstairs in front of the TV (something I don't think the boys have ever experienced before). The boys LOVED the movie, Joshua especially. I cried the whole way through it. It was great for parents and kids alike because the children didn't understand the underlying messages the way adults would, and yet it was clean and animated for the little guys. We all thoroughly enjoyed it...except maybe Shawn who said "You're not supposed to cry at a movie called 'up'." I guess...

Thanksgiving morning, it was really nice out and I went for jog to Stoner Park, around the loop at the park and back to our house. I love where we live and that there's such a nice running train nearby. After that, it was time to get ready for our activities for the day, so we recorded the Macy's Day Parade to watch later. Just like Joshua mixed up turkey and cranberries, he also told us that if he slept in his big boy bed all night, he could 'watch' Thanksgiving on TV (meaning the parade). And he LOVES to watch football with Daddy.

Shawn helped get the boys dressed while I showered, and I had picked out two potential outfits for each kiddo, letting Shawn have the ultimate option. He chose not to have them dressed exactly alike, so Caleb went into the outfit that used to be Joshua's (one of my favorites) and Joshua had on his yellow button-down shirt from Aunt Erica for his birthday. When Daddy went to put on Joshua's pants, he asked me why they were so short. I looked, and here he had put Caleb's 12-month pants on our three-year-old son. They fit great in the waist but were about up to his knees. I handed him the correct pants (laying right next to those) and we were in good shape.

We started off our feasting at 11:30 at the Four Seasons Golf Club Banquet Facility with Mom and Ken, both my sisters and their families. I tried not to go crazy for two reasons: 1) I knew we'd be eating again that night and 2) I've been trying to lose weight and was at my lowest-yet that morning after running. So, one trip with mostly healthy things and then a sample of dessert and I was good.

We got a newspaper on the way there but that afternoon, we decided to nap as the boys did. When we woke up, I started scoping out the ads as Shawn cooked the sweet potato casserole needed for his family event. Soon it was time to go again! We headed to Berks County and saw the extended family there and had a delicious dinner - the turkey was moist and amazing as usual since they baste it in butter all day long, the potatoes were out of this world, and my particular favorite was the green bean casserole that tasted like cheesy soup. It was awesome!!! The boys enjoyed playing with toys there, and we enjoyed visiting.

Soon it was time to head home and finish our planning for Black Friday shopping. We started watching some of the parade, but it was getting late and we were all exhausted. So, we put the boys to bed and called it a night, too. That night, Joshua came into our room around 1 am. I told him that my back was really hurting so be careful. He laid down with us for a few minutes and then I realized...this was more than back pain. Daddy put the Bean back to bed and I told him I was going to drive myself to the emergency room. Shawn didn't think that was a good idea since I was in severe pain. I told him I didn't want to take the kids to the hospital. I also didn't really want to wake anyone up.

So, I laid there for hours. Shawn gave me some pain medicine, and we decided that as soon as Mom got there, instead of going Black Friday shopping we would go ahead and go to the hospital. First, though, I had him research gall bladders on the Internet since that's what my friend Becca told me this might be the last time I had had an attack this severe. It didn't look like you could immediately die, so I told him to go back to sleep and I'd deal with it for the next few hours. By about 5 am, the pain went completely away. Unfortunately, I never got a whole family picture of us on Thanksgiving. Bummer!!!