4-Day Thanksgiving Weekend

Wednesday, November 22

I was super excited about the short work week ahead of me.  The past few months have taken a toll on me and probably Ben but I can't speak for him.  The roommate crap just put us over the edge on how dumb it really was.  Between getting the vet payments and trying to get her to pay for the wall she damaged while moving out was extremely hard because she didn't want to communicate with us and kept ignoring our requests to talk about it.  Plus our mattress was slowly killing us.

After work on Wednesday, Ben and I went to the grocery store for our holiday food supplies and hit up a few of the mattress stores just to see the pricing and maybe lay in some of them to check the comfort levels.  Ben has been working the whole week on graveyard so his sleeping has been off this week.  I told him he better not get too comfortable on the beds.

We went home, ate dinner and relaxed.  Ben relaxed a little too much after his long shift at Costco of making pies and muffins all night long.  He didn't last very long on the couch.  Kitty thought he would hang out with him while he slept.  Erika spend the evening making a pie for Thanksgiving.

Thursday, November 23

We got up the next day and got ready to go to our Thanksgiving gatherings.  Ben went to his aunt's house to see his grandma and mom for the day.  I went to my aunt and uncle's house with Erika.  We were suppose to be there by 2. So we headed out close to 1:15-1:30 and made our way to Tumwater.  Doug and Jenn rolled up in a vehicle that they borrowed and of course the car had Husky license plates on it.  I guess just like Air BnB there is a similar one for borrowing people's cars.  Grammie didn't come because she wasn't feeling very well.  I knew it was going to be weird without her there.  It was always weird when someone was missing.

Since we were going somewhere that didn't have television we missed most of the Thanksgiving football games.  

Karla made tons of food and because they have food allergies, we had to bring certain things with us if we wanted to eat them.  We said grace, dished up food and sat down.  We talked about an array of stuff including what everyone's been doing since we last got together.  Karla had put paper down as the table cloth and encouraged us to use the colored pencils, pens and markers to draw on it.  After we cleaned up we got the desserts and Furbys out.  Mom had found a Furby at the Goodwill a few weeks ago and wanted to have the other Furbys teach it words. We didn't think the Furbys would be that much of a spotlight.  Karla's brother, Neil, saw we had the Furbys out and went and got his.  I had no idea they made Gizmo Furbys.  Anyway we had a great time watching them talk to each other.  Mom's Furby even learned how to say "here kitty kitty" something mom taught ours almost 18 years ago.  Wow, it's been that long!?

We got ready to celebrate our birthdays that we've been putting off because it's easier to celebrate them over Thanksgiving while everyone was around.  We didn't make a cake and just ate the peach pie Erika made. 

We sang happy birthday and Tracy filmed it because Grammie was a part of the group of people we were celebrating.  That also included Grandpa, dad, mom and me.  We handed out presents and cards and watched everyone open their gifts.  

We ate some of the desserts that were brought while we drew pictures on the paper table cloth.  I started drawing penguins and ducks.  Tracy drew a bunch of Disney characters, cats and dogs and Erika drew out a dog house and a crown for one of my penguins.

By about 6 everyone was pretty much ready to go.  It was getting dark and everyone was getting tired.  We thanked Kevin and Karla for hosting Thanksgiving and we figured out who was actually going shopping with us.  In my Escape, Erika, mom and Erika and Doug and Jenn drove themselves.  Mom would have to go with Doug and Jenn back to Rainier when we were done.

The place was insane and it took us a while to find a parking spot way far away from the store.  There were so many people here it was crazy.  Over the years Walmart has perfected the organization of the goods to prevent people from being overly aggressive, throwing stuff and yelling at each other.  Part of me is sad I don't get free entertainment of people being greedy and horrible but on the other hand, it's kinda nice not being pushed around by people wanting things that they really don't need.

I went in with a mission.  I needed a few things I've had my eye on for the past few months but waited until they were a little bit cheaper.  I got a new pillow because mine are at least two years old and it shows, I bought Ben and I a wireless printer because his printer was acting up and I had no idea how to fix it, I got my yearly Pyrex containers because I thought Suzanne was stealing them and leaving them at work and a couple of movies because they were under $2.  Mom got a few things, Erika did as well but Doug and Jenn bought a bunch of stuff including a vacuum cleaner.

While they were wandering around, I all of a sudden, had to use the bathroom really bad.  Since they had the store all blocked off and such, I had to find my way around to the restroom.  I had a short amount of time before I had a bad night so I needed to hurry.  Erika texted me to find out where I went and I told her that I was using the restroom and I would meet up with them in a few to pay for our stuff.  I hated that the Thanksgiving food I ate went right through me.

I met up with everyone, paid for our stuff and drove it out to the parking lot.  Mom went with Doug and Jenn and Erika headed home with me.  We hung out the rest of the night watching Netflix and waiting for Ben to get home from Puyallup.

Friday, November 24

I slept in because I could.  Ben had a shift at Costco and I asked Erika if she wanted to stop by the South Lacey Goodwill before we headed over to Rainier.  We checked to see what that Goodwill offered, Erika found a cheap end table and headed back home.  We loaded up the car and took recycle with us to get rid of it and stopped by the house to see what mom and dad were doing.

We ended up just hanging out for a while until I talked mom into going into Yelm to see what the Goodwill and Sunbirds had to offer.  Erika decided to stay home with dad and shoot bows and arrows out in the back yard.

Mom and I went into the Goodwill first and browsed around the typical stuff that we usually do.  That for me included the t-shirts, the sports clothes, the toys, the books and some of the random aisles of stuff.  I was looking for a used travel book of Peru (for our travels May 2019), any discarded Furbys, t-shirts of my favorite teams, any Christmas presents that stood out to me for other people, a gravy boat and a meat fork.  Since it was black Friday, they were having a deal where all the toys were half off as many as you can cram into a bag.  Mom told me to find all the beanie babies and other toys like them and cram them into a bag.  We spent probably 15 minutes cramming three bags.  She is bringing them with her this May to Ecuador for the humanitarian dental trip.

We headed back to Rainier to make sure the food wasn't burning and to start the mashed potatoes, gravy and the fixings.  We watched the Penguin and Bruins hockey game and sadly the Penguins lost 4-3.  Dad ended up losing an arrow in the woods and I helped mom bury one of the ducks that had been missing for a while and a chicken that died of old age.   Mom wanted a picture of everyone for Thanksgiving so we got Jenn to take a picture of all of us.

Aren't we precious?

We ate second Thanksgiving and it was delicious.  Since mom and dad didn't have TV still we had to stream some of the college football games through the computer.  Erika wanted to go soon so we ate some dessert, thanked mom and dad for making food and that we would see them later.

We hung out at home and watched some of our TV shows until bedtime.

Saturday, November 25

We slept in again Ben had another shift at Costco.  Because Ben worked at Costco they gave each employee a turkey for Thanksgiving.  We decided to make it today for third Thanksgiving and make turkey soup the next day out of the leftovers.  This time I put the stuffing into the turkey and cooked it for the necessary time.  I timed it to where Ben would be home in time to enjoy it.

During the day while the turkey cooked, I opted not to watch the Apple Cup because I knew it was going to be disappointing and make me mad because several of our good players were not going to play and it wasn't worth watching the Huskies win by default.  I believe if we had all of our players and our star quarterback we would have slaughtered them.  I am so tired of watching our team who is much better than the Huskies lose year after year.  It's been since 2012.  Instead, I watched some of the other football games that were played that day.

I hooked up the wireless printer so I could spend some time working on our Retro Christmas card that I was voluntold to do.  I keep being voluntold to do stuff and this has been happening more since I started working at the state and I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not.  I'm going to make the coolest Retro Christmas card ever!  The staff had chosen a pet themed card so I found out how many pets everyone had and we had a bunch so I decided to make the pets Christmas ornaments on a tree.  The people who had multiple pets I turned into presents.

After I got it glued down and decorated I sent a picture to Liz for approval.  She approved and asked if we were going to work on it on Monday.  I said sure.  That would mean we would get the text on the front and the photo and saying on the back.  One step closer to it getting done.

The turkey got done shortly after I finished the card and Ben would be home soon.  I had the potatoes and gravy cooking on the stove.  The turkey cooled a bit so I started cutting pieces off of it and putting it on the platter.

Ben got home and helped me get the rest of it ready.  Erika came out of her room from doing homework and ate third Thanksgiving with us.  It was delicious and the first time I cooked stuffing inside of the turkey.  It turned out yummy.

The rest of the evening I made an attempt at trying to get organized to get our own Christmas cards ready to go.  I got a list going and had Ben find out what his friends addresses were.  I started filling out cards according to the groups I divided them up in.  We also watched football until the last game was over.

Sunday, November 26

We got up late again mostly because we could since I will have to go to work the next day and won't get to sleep in.  We ate some cereal for breakfast and I worked on some of the Christmas cards.  We both decided that turkey soup would be delicious for dinner so we spent some time looking for a great turkey soup recipe.  

I had to go to the store for a few of the things we didn't have...mostly the egg noodles.  As soon as I got back I got all of the ingredients out and started cutting up the turkey.  I was super excited to make my first turkey soup!

As it was cooking we got the TV situated to watch the Seahawks beat the 49ers 24-13.  It should have been a much higher scoring game but we let the new quarterback do whatever he wanted during the last part of the game.  The 49ers will be a different team next year so I hope we can improve our team so we are competitive with those no-so-great teams.  I really hope we get rid of our pathetic kicker soon.

I deemed this turkey soup "victory turkey soup" because it got done just as the game was winding down.  It was tasty.

We did some laundry for the upcoming work week, watched Sunday night football and did some light cleaning of the kitchen and living room.  I was sad to see my four day weekend disappear so quickly but it was nice being away from work that long and I did get some stuff accomplished.

Next Adventure:  Treecember Paint Day

Friendsgiving

Ben and I haven't hosted a game night in a while so we decided to host November's game night, Friendsgiving.  I wrote up a list and some possibilities of food choices but sticking with the main dish being turkey and had people vote on an actual Thanksgiving dinner or turkey sandwiches like we did last year at Megan and Matt's.  I got some feedback and everyone wanted to have an actual Thanksgiving dinner.  To avoid people bringing the same thing or something that didn't go with the dinner I assigned people to bring certain things once I found out who was coming and who wasn't.

I posted it on Facebook for everyone to see and for there to be no "I didn't know" weeks before the date.  It was very detailed and to the point.  Ben and I were responsible for the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.  I also wanted to incorporate a fun activity as well.  When Erika moved in a few months back she suggested at some point we have an ugly mug and or cup contest.  Everybody seemed game on the post.

We bought a turkey and the potatoes and gravy a couple days before game night so the turkey could thaw out.  We went to several different Goodwills over the course of the month to find our ugly cup/mug.  I ended up with a really retarded looking reindeer on a Christmas mug and I totally thought I would win. Ben ended up with a pimp and ho mug set and Erika bought an emoji poo mug.  Just between the three of us we had some pretty hideous/ugly/funny mugs.  I couldn't wait to see what other people brought.

I spent most of the day cleaning the house and cooking the turkey.  I had to get the turkey into the oven by noon for it to be done by the time everyone arrived.  I brought in the tables and chairs and even swept the front sidewalk and stoop area.

The turkey got done about a half hour before people started to arrive.  I had Ben cut it up and put it on serving platters.  I arranged the kitchen so all the food would fit onto the tables and so people could go through fairly easy.

We would have a few extra people coming over including Ben's friends Josh and Heather and Megan and Matt's friends.  I am glad I had enough chairs.

Everyone started to arrive.  As people arrived the food started to pile up on the table.  I had to rearrange the table a few times just so the food would fit.  Usually our Christmas party is the gathering that usually has everyone but this time we had everybody plus four people and the two kids.  My house was packed!

The food was delicious and of course the conversations are always classic.  Megan and Matt's friends left early because they had another function to be at.  We cleared the plates and got ready to play a few games.  So many dishes.

But first everyone brought out their ugly cup/mug and put it on display for everyone to vote on it.  The prize was a Lime Berry gift card for the person who received the most votes.  We went around the circle and we presented our ugly cup/mugs to everyone and Ben recorded the votes.  I was really sad mine didn't win because it was definitely unique and I will never find something similar to it ever.  Matt ended up winning with his gun mug so he won the gift card.

Some people left after the ugly mug/cup competition and the rest gathered at the table for some games.  Nicole always managed to bring some good games.  We played one where you had to convince everyone your dish made with weird ingredients and weird rules was the best one.  Almost like Chopped and Iron Chef mixed together.  The other I can't remember what it was but I do know we played two games. 

Everyone was gone by midnight.  I started putting everything away and started the dishes.  I just couldn't go to bed knowing that there was a pile of dishes waiting for me the next day.  I got most of the stuff put away and called it a night.  I was exhausted but we had fun.  Until the next one!

Next Adventure:  4-Day Thanksgiving Weekend

My 34th Birthday

I had the day off because I took it off from work and I was glad I did with all the stupidity that happened from the past few days.   It never fails with the weather during this week because historically anywhere around my birthday it will rain.  Not just any rain but heavy rain, wind and power outages.  The only time it didn't rain on my birthday is when I lived in Pullman.  Guess what the forecast was for November 13th?  You guessed it!  Wind and heavy rain.

I got up around 9ish and got my workout gear on.  I needed to keep up on my running.  I had just started a week before Halloween.  I was tired of being tired all the time and I noticed I didn't like the way I looked in my photos or the way I fit into some of my favorite clothes.  I picked a great time to run because the rain had died down to a mist instead of a heavy downpour.  I got my almost mile and a half in around the neighborhood in the wicked wind.  I got back just before the next downpour rolled in.

I started getting Facebook posts and they continued throughout the day.

I started taking my sweaty wet clothes off so I could get into the shower to start our day when all of a sudden the power goes off.  "ARE YOU SERIOUS!??"  What a way to end my awful 4-day weekend.  Who knows how long it would be out.  I got pretty upset because I was cold and wanted to be clean.  Ben got up and Erika was already up wondering what we were going to do today.  Ben was going to make Scooby-Doo waffles, bacon and eggs for breakfast but the power was out.  I wiped myself down with a cold washcloth and put clean clothes onto my sweaty body.  Ben got up and started putting clothes on when all of the sudden the power went back on.  "YES!"  I jumped into the shower as fast as I could and Ben went into the kitchen to make breakfast.

After the shower I got ready for my day.  I came out and we all ate breakfast at the dining room table.  After breakfast Ben gave me my birthday gift.  It could have been one of two jerseys, a legit Cougar jersey or a Sydney Crosby jersey.  It was a Sydney Crosby jersey and I was very happy to get it but I knew it cost some money and he could have waited because of the financial strain we were going to have soon.  I told him I loved it but I've waited since 2009 and I could have waited longer to get one because of our situation.

Erika, Ben and I decided to hit up a few of the Goodwills in the area for fun.  We started at Olympia, got onto the freeway and hit up the one in Hawks Prairie and then finished at the one in South Lacey.  I did find some good stuff for Christmas.  We found this awesome poster at the one in Oly and we were sad to see that it was $10, if it hadn't of been that much we would have taken it home.

We headed home because we had to feed Emmitt and Red was coming over and she didn't want to make them wait.  Ben and I headed over to the geocache, Summer Fun #8: Bubbles!!! (GC7AM0R), that was closest to our house.  We tried to go find it a few months ago but it was muggled and we patiently waited for the cache owner to replace it.  He finally did and I wanted to find it on my birthday.  It was pouring down rain and we had to find it fast before we got soaked.  Ben found it on the opposite side of the tree.  We signed it quickly and put it back. 

The soccer field was basically a lake with all the rain that we've had so far today and it had attracted a lot of seagulls and Canadian geese.  Ben had his waterproof hikers on so I told him to go chase all the birds.

We came back home, did some chores, started laundry, turned on Monday Night Football and make rice yuck for dinner.  The Raiders were playing the Philadelphia Eagles and the Eagles won that game 19-10.  It wasn't their best game but it was entertaining nonetheless.  We got our work clothes ready for the work week, got cleaned up and went to bed.  I read some of my messages people wrote on my wall and thanked everyone for wishing me a happy birthday.  Three and four day weekends always go by way too fast.  

Next Adventure:  Friendsgiving