Thanksgiving Stay-cation

I decided to extend my already 4-day Thanksgiving weekend by taking a couple vacation days the Tuesday and Wednesday prior. I had big plans for all that I could accomplish in my extra days at home, but as usual my expectations were a little overly optimistic.  Tues and Wed were mostly filled with shopping, playing with the boys, and getting ready for Thanksgiving Day.  While that wasn't quite what I had planned for my vacation days, N and I did turn out some pretty awesome Dukes of Hazzard coloring pages that we both really enjoyed doing together. 

We are so lucky that all of our extended family is close and we can see everybody on Thanksgiving Day.  That said, it does require a fair amount of planning, preparation, (and luck) to pull it off.  We had to leave home in time to make it to my mom and dad's so L, the one-year-old, could take his morning nap, which is a critical element to making the rest of the day go well.  Somewhat surprisingly, that all went to plan.  Mom made an excellent meal (as usual), and the grandkids all played pretty well together.  L took another pretty good nap after lunch, and N learned that grandpa's limit is about 15 minutes of listening to pounding on a xylophone. Supper went equally well with the in-laws.  N loves feeling like a "big kid" playing with his two older cousins. 

Friday was a logistical challenge.  C has established a tradition of going Black Friday shopping, during which I watch the boys.  This year, however, I had a conflict.  Back in September I made arrangements for a gentleman that owns a 98 year old Caterpillar tractor (the oldest surviving produced in East Peoria) to have it on display for an employee open house.  The delivery turned out to be quite the event and got a nice write-up in the Peoria Newspaper.  The owner is a farmer and left it on display while he finished harvest.  He wanted to come pick it up on Friday while his son was out of school so he could see it on display in the factory.  So, I had to coordinate this pickup appointment with C's shopping plans, the owner's schedule and the tractor factory.  Without making this blurb any longer, we all worked it out, and the pickup went very smoothly.  It still impresses me that at 98 years old the tractor starts right up. 

The final project for the weekend was getting Christmas lights up.  I missed the previous period of warm weather, and was determined not to miss it on Sunday.  It is nice that in our current house I can climb out an upstairs window on the porch, and then do most of the lights from the roof without needing a ladder.  Climbing onto the roof that way, however, is not something I want him to teach N.  I'm sure he'll figure it out on his own soon enough.  So, while C and N had a "Mommy and Me Day", and L took a nap, I put up the Christmas Lights.  I had the forethought last year to label which set I put where, so I was able to get them all up during nap time.  The only change from last year is the addition of lights on the two real evergreens by the front steps.  I think it turned out festive without being too Griswold-esque. 

OK, so I promise all the posts won't be this long, but it WAS a long weekend!