Thanksgiving 2012

We had a nice Thanksgiving holiday this year. On Thanksgiving day we had the kids to our house for a big dinner. It was a really nice day - in the 60's temperature wise. I raked the rest of the leaves out to the curb in the morning and we took a walk before anyone got to our house. Then Isaac arrived in the old blue truck a little before noon, and pretty soon the Feipel crew came over. So we ate a big early-afternoon meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, two kinds of stuffing, and Carrie brought a scrumptious cauliflower casserole. We also had pumpkin pie and cheese cake for dessert. I ate waaaay too much - it was so good. Then we all kind of fell asleep to football in the afternoon. The Feipel's left early evening, and Isaac left around 8 pm. I think he ended up staying until the Cowboys finally lost. So it was a pretty laid-back day, but a good day as far as I was concerned.

On Friday we headed to Buda to have a joint Thanksgiving/Christmas with my parents. Drew had to work, so Carrie, Anna and Bennett rode with Jane and I. We took Drew Carrie's car (so the two car seats would fit in the back seat), and Drew drove our car when he got off work. I thought we were going to take their Trail Blazer, but apparently there is something funky with how the car seats fit or something. Anyway, it didn't work and we drove their car (I'm having a brain burp right now and can't remember what kind it is). So... we left around 10:40 am or so. The kids rode really well. Poor Bennett cried quite a bit, but he has such a quiet (yet sad) cry that it doesn't make a lot of noise. Anna was super good. We stopped in Monticello and ate lunch and Carrie fed Bennett, so we spent quite a bit of time there. I probably drove a little faster than normal because I didn't want the kids to have to spend anymore time in the car than they had to. It still took us just over 6 hours to get there. It was nice driving their car though, because it's bigger and more comfortable than our car. We saw just a few snow flurries around Monticello... Otherwise it was clear, but it turned bitter cold. It was down to about 35f by noon, and kept dropping. And it was really windy. Friday night we all went out to Mark and Christine's, and Laura was there. We had a nice visit, then went back to my parent's house. Drew arrived not too long after 10 pm.

Saturday we kind of just lazed around. We had a nice lunch. Jane and I took Drew and Anna out to see the cows at her brother's farm (where Jane grew up) in the afternoon. We also checked out the giant tractors. Then Drew and I went over to the pub in Sheffield for awhile. We were the only one's there most of the time, and the bartender kind of talked our ear off. Oh well, it was something to do, and he talked a lot about guitars so I was at least interested. It probably wasn't much fun for Drew. Then we had Casey's pizza for supper - except Carrie got food to go from Red's in Sheffield. Then my mom wanted us to watch a Don Knots dvd, so we did that. Anna developed a nasty cough and runny nose, so the Feipel's all went to bed early. Jane and I headed over to Brother's in Sheffield around 9:30. They had a band we'd seen before, and really liked. There weren't very many people there, but at least the one's that were there were people we liked. So we chatted with Lisa, Valerie, Joe and Nancy, and Tony (the bartender) and Danny (the owner) too. It was a good time. I guess there was a bit family spat between the other brother and the sister, so the house band is currently broken up, and it has caused a lot of people to quit going to the place. I hope they get it worked out.

Sunday we went to Bunker for church by ourselves. The Feipel's were going to head for home early, because Drew has to get up early for work the next day. So my parents stayed home to see them off. We thought church went ok. I liked the sermon quite a bit. The music was... eh. Not really my style, but it wasn't terrible. I like their instrumentation, but just not into that happy-clappy stuff. We talked to a few people and heard a good sermon, so I'm glad we went. When we got back to my parents the kids were gone, and Barb and Arvel were there. My parents asked if we all wanted to go get pancakes at the Catholic church in Sheffield, so we all did. But when we arrived we discovered they were serving pancakes next Sunday. So we drove to the Red Apple (or whatever) in Princeton. I had pancakes there. Then we went back to my parents and Jane and I loaded up and left. We had to return a dress my mom got for Anna at Bergner's in Peru, so we went home through Chicago for a change. Other than spending 35 minutes in Bergner's, it was a wise choice. Traffic was great, and we actually made it home in 4 1/2 hours (not counting the 35 minutes at the mall). That did include 2 potty stops though. So I liked taking an 1 1/2 off the trip.

All in all it was a good trip, I thought. My dad wasn't too annoying, the kids were good (though I felt bad for Anna when she had her cough), and nothing too terrible happened. I still have today off to make up for the day of vacation I didn't take from a few weeks ago, and Jane has the day off too. We may go see a movie. So... I guess that's it.

Oh, by the way, I used a Sunday Sabbatical for this weekend. So I have so far used one week of vacation and one SS since my contract ran out in July.