Happy Monday!
What a whirlwind of a weekend! It was so sad to see it come to an end!
We celebrated Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house...my Dad's youngest sister. This was the first Thanksgiving without my grandmother. Last year, my grandmother had been close to the end of her battle with cancer, but had a grace-filled "rally" on Thanksgiving Day. She had a seat in the middle of everyone and was able to eat all of her favorite foods and desserts! It was such a blessing for her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to have that wonderful memory. Because everyone knew she was dying, everyone except for one grandson (who lives in NC) was there last year.
This year, it was a much smaller gathering, but still nice to see two of my aunts and uncles and one of my cousins. (Since we are a family of 10 everything becomes a large party whenever we are invited anywhere!) It felt strange without my Grandma being there.
Later on in the weekend I took out the basket with all our Christmas cards from last year. I looked through them on their way to be recycled, and found one my Grandma sent last year. It was special because she passed away right before Christmas.
....That card didn't get recycled; it's still in the basket!
After Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt's house, we visited Jay's parents and his sister, niece and nephew. Luke and Kate had fun playing and the rest of us sat around visiting. Eventually we made our way home for a bit where I cooked a lasagna I had made for Andrew the day before. (He doesn't like turkey, so he was "thankful" for lasagna!) Then, we went over to my parent's house for a while to visit with them and my sister and her friend.
It was a full day!
On Friday, I went Black Friday shopping with my mom and sister. We don't go crazy early like many people....we didn't leave the house until 7:30am. We also didn't come back until 7 pm. It was a lot of fun, we got a lot of great deals, and I am now completely done with all my Christmas shopping!
Jay had his own craziness on Black Friday! He took the senior youth group shopping for 2 needy families from 5-8am. Then he headed to work. He buzzed through his day and was able to get home a little after 2. Then, his mom, sisters, nephew and niece came over for the annual pierogi fest! They spent several hours making cabbage and potato and cheese pierogi's from Jay's grandmother's recipe. Because they got such a late start, they didn't make as many as they usually made....only 7 dozen. They were delicious and we still have plenty in the freezer! Good family memories but no pictures bc Jay forgot to take any!
On Saturday, we just hung out and worked on little things around the house. Jay had bigger plans but cut his thumb on a broken bowl when he was finishing the pierogi fest clean-up in the early am. His cut probably could have used some glue...but I have a very stubborn husband!
We picked out our tree on Saturday afternoon but saved the decorating for Sunday after lunch. It went well! Then, we went to my parent's house for dinner and helped them put up their tree and wrap presents.
I have some pics from our tree picking/decorating that I will share later in the week!
It was really hard to leave "long weekend mode" and get back to regular life! I felt really sad when Mike and Andrew left to go back to school last night. They only have about 3 weeks until they will be home for winter break, but I wish we could just all be together. Sometimes I just miss my kids!
I hope your long weekend was filled with lots of great food and family time!
