Thanksgiving in Texas

We had the BEST Thanksgiving ALL WEEK LONG!! We decided we needed more than just one day for Thanksgiving this year, so we pulled the kids out of school early and headed down to visit Temple, Tx the Saturday before turkey day! Adeline got extra homework done, Jackson took his states and capitols quiz, we packed and packed (even a frozen turkey), dropped off the dogs, stopped at Walmart and then finally hit the road. I had the best nap, the kids watched movies and Thad drove.....fast! We got the best advice in the world (thank you so much Searcy's!) and stopped at the Czech Stop for the most delicious Kolaches anywhere in Texas, and then called Grandpa Don so excited to tell him...surely he ate these all the time growing up! Surely Grandma Arrowsmith was famous for baking them, after all, she was a Novasad....he had no idea what they were! Ha! We finally made our way to Hansom Cab Dr and piled out of the car! We were all so excited to be at the French's! They have a beautiful house, a great park and a very cold swimming pool right up the street.

We had the greatest visit, the kids played and played and played! They could just walk right out the door and ride scooters and skateboards all over the neighborhood, spend hours at the park or stay home and spend hours on the Wii! They LOVED Jack and Miley and spoiled them with walks and tummy rubs all week long. We slept all over the place. Adeline in Reagan's room, the boys in Hudsons room. Thad and I in the spare room with Zoe...but after the first night of no air in the blow up, and the second night of sleeping in the crack of two twin mattresses I snuck into Reagan's bed and stayed there for the rest of the week! Thad was a champ and slept with Zoe and Harrison the rest of the time and hardly even complained!

Sunday we checked out their ward and decided it wasn't as great as Norman 4th of course, but it would do! Monday we went to the DRIVE IN! Yes!! A drive in. I have to say I wasn't crazy about the movies....the Christmas one was really dark and kinda scary...but we were at a DRIVE IN! I loved it! We grabbed pizza on the way, brought all kinds of candy and drinks and didn't even have to sneak it in! We bought gigantic hot chocolates for only $1! It was awesome! The only down fall was we thought we were going to see New Moon for the 3rd movie, but they showed it inside during the 1st one so we missed it! Dang it!

We spent a day checking out Belton and went to the Train Museum and the great park outside! Well actually, we went to the park and played and then lied to the kids that the train museum was actually all the trains outside because we didn't want to pay to go in the museum! It was a blast and we got some super cute pics of the kids!

On Wednesday Thad took the kids down to the pool and in true Balkman style they all jumped in....for an ice cream cone!!!! Even Reagan got in! Hudson, my dear sweet smart boy, was way too smart for that and stayed home and played Wii. I told him he deserved the ice cream anyway just because he didn't go swimming in an outdoor unheated pool the end of November....even if you were in Texas! My crazy kids all had a great time, came back shivering and begging for a hot bath but were denied because they had to leave the premises while we did our Thanksgiving baking!!

So Thad Donovan and the kids all took off and headed down to the Army Base at Fort Hood while us women-folk stayed home and baked and baked....and shopped and shopped online! They had a great time looking at all kinds of army equipment and exploring. They even tried to get into a welcome home ceremony but couldn't pass off as family....if only Taryn and I were there and the boys were home baking I'm sure we could have made it in! They got their ice cream on the way home, and came back all smiles....and Zoe's hair smelling like Army engine grease. Apparently you couldn't climb ON the machinery, so our genius kids just climbed UNDER it!

Ga and Boompa (Taryn's parents) came up from Houston and we had a great time with them. Zoe took an immediate liking to Boompa, and Harrison and his baseball bat were Boompa's new best friends!

Thursday finally arrived and we had the BEST turkey and trimmings EVER! We soaked Mr. Turkey in a brine all night and then stuffed him with all kinds of things your wouldn't think of stuffing in a bird. We had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, Ga's famous noodles, cranberry salad, grape and broccoli salad, rolls, cheese and celery and pies pies pies! We had so many pies we even taste tested one of the pumpkin pies Wednesday night just to make sure it was alright for the big day! The boys "watched" the kids outside while we were busy inside. Actually, they pretty much kept the kids busy and gone for two days!!

We had a wonderful time eating eating and eating! And toasting toasting and toasting! I think Miles took the prize for the best toast to us "wonderful ladies"! Taryn if you can remember what he said you'll have to leave me a comment so I can post it!!

Taryn loaded up the kids with whip cream...come on, what's Thanksgiving without a little white stuffed sprayed in your mouth!

And while we all sat on the couch after, Jackson serenaded us on Donovan's guitar! He pulled some TAB for Christmas songs off the internet and was playing Silent Night in about 2 minutes!

So now that Thanksgiving was over, the REAL fun was ready to start!!! 5:00 Taryne, Diane and I headed out to Michaels for a STEAL on a Cricut machine! Usually $200, on sale for $69 and then the 25% off coupon that you weren't supposed to use on it....they USED!! I told Taryn if I had known it was going to be that cheap I would have gotten one too! It would have sat in the box unopened since I'm not a scrapbooker and never plan on being one....but I would have gotten the best deal of the shopping season too!! I went home with a new nutcracker and some ribbon! We got home in time for Thad and Donovan to run out and see NEW MOON with Adeline and Jackson (I STILL haven't seen it....and I'm the one who read the books!) While they were gone we fine tuned our shopping lists for Black Friday, and headed out when the movie was over!

We made it over to Toys R Us around 11:00pm and Taryn counted 265 people in line in front of us! The store opened at midnight! We had soooo much fun laughing and talking about the Play-Doh we were waiting to buy that the time flew and before we knew it we were at the front of the store watching Mr. Toys R Us not let 2 people in because they were cutters!!! It was great! Cutters never prosper!! Once inside, Diane stood in line and we ran for our presents...sorry, I can't reveal them until after Christmas "just in case!" No majoy fights over cars and dolls, but the check out Nazi wouldn't let us cut through the boxes of wrapping paper because of spilled hot chocolate on the floor!

After our Toys R Us adventure, we took Diane home and decided that we could either go to bed for 2 hours with the chance of not making it to Target because we would be too tired, or we could pack up some snacks and go wait in line all night! Is there any question here? We made some turkey sandwiches, grabbed some doritos, Pepsi and some chairs and a blanket and were on our way! We stopped at the gas station for hot chocolate....and a LOTTERY TICKET!! Yeah, just had to test our luck! We didn't win anything.....what a waste! We got over to Target a little after 2:00 in the morning, and were about 15 people from the door!! It was great! The BEST part was Taryn was FREEZING!!!!! I loved it!! Taryn French in her flip flops and heat flashes was actually COLD??? I told her now you know what it feels like when you shake and shiver so bad your back spasms and you can't turn your head because your neck hurts so bad!! ha ha After hours of trying to stay warm huddled together, listening to the strangers conversations and the lady who would not stop talking all night, we got our maps of the store and free bag and at 5:00 made a dash for the sales! Now, shopping with Taryn is an experience everyone should have! She's a PRO! She stays cool, calm and collected. We divvied up our purchases so we could save time, we knew exactly what we were getting on what aisle, how many and what color. We had our lists and were ready....I got distracted 15 feet inside the door with the 32 inch TV that wasn't on either of our lists and it was all over for me! After that I fought my way to the "other things" and by the time I got those I saw her through the sea of people yelling "I got it! I got it!" and she said "Noooo Amy! I got those...you were supposed to get these....!" Oh my.......carts were crashing into carts, people were grabbing everything, a stupid guy in a fake Texas letterman's jacket ran into my heal and it was total chaos! But we eventually got everything on our lists PLUS some other things we just couldn't live without for Christmas! Well, almost everything....I discovered when we were in the car that I had forgotten something and Taryn said well, it wasn't on your list....and I said NO IT WAS ON MY LIST!!!! I DIDN'T LOOK AT MY LIST!!! I am so not a shopper!! The best part about the morning was you got a $10 Target card when you spent more than $100. So after the girl rang up Taryn and she only got ONE $10 card, I said well can't you divide it up? So she voided it and rang it all up again! Hilarious!! So then I watched my stuff, pointed and handed her things that would add up to just $100 and when she got to $100 on my stuff I would stay STOP and get my $10 card! The girl was really annoyed and apologized to the guy behind us as we were leaving, but I didn't care! I'll never see those people again! :) I got $40 in gift cards that I totally deserved! :)

We got home after 6:00, not bad I thought, with donuts in hand for the kids so we could sleep and the boys would be happy with us! And at 7:00 laying in Reagan's bed with Taryn on the floor (thanks friend!) I COULD NOT go to sleep!! Finally we got a few hours of zzzzz's and then got up, got ready and packed for home! I can't believe we actually fit everything in the van! Katie would be proud! Our awesome week was actually over, how was that possible?? It was so much fun, the kids got along, everything worked out and I wasn't ready to come home! I'm sure I'm leaving out so many fun things but who in the world is supposed to remember everything after you were up shopping ALL NIGHT!! We had a pretty uneventful trip back to God's Country...I slept, the kids watched movies, Thad drove...fast! Very fast! We made another stop at the Czech Stop for Kolaches, can you really leave Texas without them? Thanks so much for the best Thanksgiving Week! Can't wait to come to Texas again! Oh...and we'll have to go back to the Dead Fish Grill and see our waitress A.K.A. MILEY CYRUS again!! ;)