Thanksgiving week recap

Hello again, and happy week after Thanksgiving!  We are now apparently into December, and I'm realizing more and more how far behind on things I am.  Not too many things in particular, just stuff I had organized in the back of my head as "by the end of the year."  Guess what: it's almost the end of the year (WHAT?!) and most of the things aren't done.  Oh well.  Life will go on and there's always next year!

This past week just seems like a happy, busy blur in hindsight, full of laughing, family and far too few naps.  Little projects here and there tried to get started and finished, Jesse went deer hunting and was a champ, we had Thanksgiving, family visitors...busy busy busy!

First things first, I'm going to brag on Jesse.  He continues to set the bar high for whenever I actually get a deer.  WV has two weeks worth of gun season for deer hunting, so he went out several times last week.  He didn't see anything Monday, but that was enough to get him fired up and ready to go the rest of the week.  Monday evening he said, "I have a good feeling about seeing a deer tomorrow." ...that guy.  Tuesday morning, I was getting ready for work, making breakfasts and such and heard a gun shot.  I did a little happy dance for him, because he's a great aim and if he shot, he got a deer.  Then about two minutes later, I heard another shot and stopped what I was doing and thought, "there's no way he missed or needed a second shot to bring a deer down..." so I waited until I heard him come back inside about 5 minutes later.  Turns out, he got two deer!  After an hours worth of hunting.  That just seems to be the way to hunt: no freezing your rear off for hours on end.  Anyway, I guess he got the first deer, started to climb down from the blind and saw another deer staring at him, so he got her, too.  It was a good day.

Thursday, we woke up early and headed off to the Pagano side Thanksgiving feast at my aunt and uncle's B&B in Ohio for a day of fun.  Considering the fact that Emma typically has been taking two naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, about 3.5-4 hours total, and we left so early, we assumed she'd doze off and nap for a bit on the 3.5 hour drive.  Not so much.  She happily played and chatted with Lily until we were about 2 minutes from our destination and finally conked out.  And that was the extent of her napping.  We had a great time visiting with family, and as always, it was over too fast and I felt like I'd barely gotten to talk to anybody!  The girls and I played in the snow while some other family members did a geo cache excursion, and Emma thought that was the greatest thing ever.  I have no idea what the ratio of real food to sugar was that Lily consumed, but she had a great time and went from aunts and uncles to great aunts and great uncles and I'm pretty sure she just got whatever she asked for.  By the time we left, the girls were exhausted and I'd eaten way too many sweets for the year.  We left about 5:45 and the girls were out within minutes of being in the car and slept the entire way home and then through the night.  Success. 

Friday was a cleaning and deer processing day.  Nothing too thrilling to note that I remember, but our freezer is now happily full.  

Saturday, Jesse's folks, Matt, Erin and Koleen all came to visit for the afternoon.  But first thing in the morning, Jesse took me out deer hunting for the first time!  We didn't see anything, which was a bummer, but that's ok because I didn't freeze OR fall asleep.  

I know you're jealous of my hat. 

When family arrived, we had such a good time relaxing and watching the girls play together.  Lily had a hard time remembering that Kole wasn't a baby, therefore didn't really want to be held and cuddled, but they all seemed to have a great time.  Erin and I had the brilliant idea that we'd let the girls decorate some sugar cookies, and while that was all kinds of hilarious fun, I think more icing and sprinkles just went straight to mouths than ever ended up on the cookies.  Which was fine as far as I was concerned.  They made a glorious mess and had a great time, so mission accomplished.  

Kole decided to forget the cookie..

and went straight for the sprinkles.  smart kid.

hold up your cookie, Lily!

xoxo

The girls and I were so tired from all of last week's adventures that we just relaxed yesterday and tried to get a few little things cleaned up and ready for this week.  Jesse and I got to go on our first date in who knows how long and braved the crazy world to go Christmas shopping for the girls.  We also picked out a Christmas tree, which we will be decorating tonight.  He and I got it set up and wrapped in lights last night so the girls could see it and be excited by it first thing this morning, and they were thrilled.  Lily had a small meltdown when I finally had to move all the boxes of ornaments and decorations away so she would stay out of them, but the anticipation of working on this when Daddy gets home from work is very real right now!

Anyway, that's all I can think of to report on, I'm sure I had more, but that's ok.  I'll hopefully be back soon!  Check out the (sparse) pictures I posted on my other blog and threw together!