Holiday Beginnings: A Wrap-Up.

In true holiday fashion, as soon as Thanksgiving hit, life got hectic. So blogging has been put off and put off until now, a week and a few days after Turkey Day, I'm forced to just summarize the haps of the past 9 days in one wrap-up blog. So let's get started.

THANKSGIVING
Bryan and I spent Thanksgiving in Richmond this year. Got up relatively early to finish making Gram's Pumpkin Custard (I bought a puree sieve which makes this pie SO MUCH easier to make). Called my mom and told her I want her secret cake recipes for Christmas. My mom started a baking business when we lived in the mountains and now that I'm grown up and interested in cooking (God knows I wasn't back then!), I think about how good these cakes were ALL THE TIME. Actually, I should stop talking about them because now I am craving that coffee cake. Anyway, talked to my mom for a while and then it was time to get ready to go to Grandma's.

Went to Grandma's for Grammer Thanksgiving Feast. It was great, as always to see everyone. Took the camera but suck at remembering to take pictures. Did get these shots:

My cousin Chase and his dad, my uncle Bruce, and my dad,
chillin' out after a big meal.

My aunt Elaine and cousin Heather,
waking up from a tryptophan-induced nap.

Came home after doing a drive-by of the Best Buy and realizing there were already about 30 people camped outside at 6:30pm. Watched some t.v. and wished we had stolen some leftovers from Grandma's.

BLACK FRIDAY
Bryan and I decided about a year ago that we were going to buy a new t.v. on Black Friday of this year. Our old t.v. still worked, but we really needed an upgrade. So, we did. We did a little research and decided what we wanted, and had every intention of sitting outside the store and waiting for it to open to get some massive deal. Then it got cold. Then we realized the t.v. we wanted wasn't a door buster sale. Then Bryan discovered we could buy the t.v. online and pick it up at the store. So, we still woke up at 2:30am, but instead of sitting outside in the cold, we sat down at the computer and bought our new t.v.! We did still head out to the stores around 4:30 am, and there were about 500 people lined up at Circuit City when we got there, so we went to Sears instead. We got a couple deals there (don't get me started... whole 'nother blog), then headed to Circuit City to pick up our new monster t.v.

And here it is!


We got a 50" Samsung Plasma TV. It's fabulous. We love switching back and forth between the HD channels and the regular channels, the difference is amazing. We have also watched more football on this t.v. in the past week than I can add up... of course, there have been lots of good games to watch, so we might have watched that much football even if we hadn't gotten a new t.v....

WORK
This past week at work was out of control. My job is typically pretty low-key, but the workload comes in waves. This week was the crest of the wave--I swear there were like 10 things going on at once! Everything got done, but it was a little frazzling a few moments in there. The good thing about weeks like that, though, is that now things will slow back down a bit before the holidays. Not entirely, but some! :)

Bryan's week at work included a whirlwind trip to Dallas to look at some... thing. I don't know what. He has told me like 8 times but I keep forgetting. Some part for some machine at the power station. He left on Tuesday morning and came back on Wednesday afternoon. Like I said, whirlwind trip!

GRANDMA'S TREE DECORATING PARTY
Friday night was the annual tree decorating party at Grandma's house. I'm glad we started this a few years ago--it's a great chance to see everyone between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and usually we see members of the family that we don't see on either holiday because everyone has other things to do on those days. Good eats, about 5000 ornaments to put on the tree, and lots of fun!

Here's Grandma decorating the tree. I could never get a shot of her from the front, so I had to settle for this angle. :)

Here's my cousin Amanda's daughter, Araya, decorating the tree. Araya and her brother David were the best tree decorators there--and the cutest!

Bryan had to work late, so I took him some clothes to the power station and we went from there. I think he worked harder this week than I realized, because he FELL ASLEEP at the party! Either that, or he was totally exhausted by all the ornament placing he did! :)


And finally, a couple "family portraits..." Me, dad and Grandma:


And several of the "Grammer Clan:"




KLINGER HOUSEHOLD DECORATING DAY
Yesterday I was determined to get our house decorated for Christmas. We got our big tree down last weekend, and I intended to get that done in the evenings this past week. Unfortunately when I plugged it in Tuesday night while Bryan was gone, about 1/3 of it didn't light up (it's pre-lit). I got annoyed when I couldn't find a quick fix for this problem, and decided to wait for Bryan to help me fix it.

So yesterday I got all the decorations out and started on the other small tree we put up and all the other decorations while Bryan patched a leaky spot on the roof. The plan was, once it got dark, we would work on the big tree together. This plan went out the window when, around 6pm, Bryan came in to show me something he got from Lowe's and, on his way back out of the living room, noticed roofing tar tracks on the cream Berber carpet. Oh yes. The man had tracked ROOFING TAR into the living room. I almost cried. He quickly got the tube out and saw that paint thinner was what they recommended to clean it off. Of course we didn't have any of this, and he looked at me and said, "can we use paint thinner on the carpet?!" I was like, well even if it eats holes into the carpet, white holes will look better than black spots!!!! So back to Lowe's he went, and thankfully the paint thinner took that crap right out of the carpet. I was, needless to say, very relieved.

Of course, then the only natural thing to do next was clear out the living room and clean the carpet! (Yes, that's sarcasm you read there.) Bryan asked me to help him get everything out, and it took me about 30 minutes to come to terms with the fact that the big tree was going to spend yet another night unlit and undecorated. He was right... the carpet needed cleaning anyway, and might as well do it then rather than leave paint thinner eating away at it.

So... here we are Sunday morning. All of our living room furniture is either in the formal living room, the dining room or the front hallway. I have a 10-minute presentation in Spanish to finish that I have to give tomorrow morning and we're planning to head to Williamsburg this afternoon to meet up with my college roomie Frane and her husband for the Grand Illumination. It's supposed to rain, though, so I am not sure if we're going to tough it out or find another day to meet up... And somewhere along the way, I'll hopefully get that damned tree lit and decorated!