About five days before Thanksgiving Morgan woke up with a stiff neck, a teensy fever and was super lethargic all day. So I took her to the pediatrician who then insisted that we take her to Primary Children's Medical Center for a CT scan. They wanted to rule out strep, meningitis, and something like an abscess of the esophagus, bony issues, etc. Morgan turned out to be fine and was herself in a couple days.
A couple days later Sarah came down with what I think may have been a mild version of the H1N1. She had a fever, sore throat and a cough which lasted for a couple of days. Then Emma got it just in time for Thanksgiving. Needless to say I was worn out from keeping a 24-hour nursing watch on my kids, preparing the ham, sweet potato casserole and apple pie for Thanksgiving dinner and then getting up early to participate in the chaos that is black Friday. Even as I write this things have not quite returned to normal as I have a pinched muscle in the middle of my back that makes it hard to even breathe. But on a positive note: I'm done with my Christmas shopping and Thanksgiving was a lot of fun.
This year we had TG dinner with my side of the family at my brother & SIL, Jeff and Felicia's house. This is Ray, Flea's brother (whom is a real live CHEF), making the creamy mashed potatoes. He made a shrimp bisque that was to die for. And, of course, we had all the usual fixin's such as turkey, ham, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, salads, pumpkin pie, etc. But I don't have any pics of that because as soon as the food was ready I stuffed my face, as everybody should on Thanksgiving!
Felicia's mom and brother playing Scrabble waiting for dinner...
...others watched football or just visited.
After dinner Flea and I went through our ads, mapped our routes according to the store/deal/time and then we went home. I couldn't sleep and probably got 2 hours of sleep before waking up at 4:00 AM to wait in line at Walmart for an hour and a half! Black Friday is a whole other post--let's just say I was proud of some finagling that I did and, yes, I got everything on my list!
That weekend we put up the trees. Here's Sarah, Emma and Morgan decorating the "kid's tree" in the basement.
By the way, as I stated on my Facebook page, I'm so grateful for the health of my children! Spending a day at Primary Children's Hospital, sitting in the waiting room and realizing that, depending on what the doctor found, in one minute my life could be turned around...humbled me and made me so thankful for my children, their health, their sass and that we're together forever!
Nathan, Steven and Alex made serious cracks in the pinata...
It started out as water balloon dodge ball, but quickly turned into a free for all water fight!
Who knew that a couple dollars worth of glow sticks could be so entertaining?!
