Let's be thankful

Happy Friday after Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a lovely and safe holiday and that you are enjoying the turkey hangover today. Some of you are out shopping, no doubt. Well actually maybe not... If you started at the 4am sales this morning you are probably passed out in your car outside the mall clutching several shopping bags in one hand and a Red Bull in the other.

Or, if you are an avid Alabama or Auburn fan you are likely in Tuscaloosa, at or outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium, ready for a true Iron Bowl.

As for me, I am actually doing neither. Instead I decided to spend the day babysitting in an attempt to make some money rather than spend it. I have Christmas gifts to purchase, new brakes to pay for, and a car tag renewal coming up. So here I am! Not a bad way to spend the day, actually. So far we've read books, watched Beauty and the Beast, played a rousing game of "Hi Ho! Cherry-o", and done a lot of dress up.

Now the game is starting and I'm hoping to distract the little princess with books and other amusements so I can catch at least part of the game. Patrick, for his part, is asleep on the couch here. I am definitely not complaining; I appreciate the company (I might even cut him in...well, probably not but surely some of what I earn today will go toward a Christmas gift for him so...everybody wins? How's that for justification!). Poor Patrick is exhausted after working an obscene number of hours at work the past month or so, and especially after the three marathon Thanksgivings we celebrated yesterday. Three, you may ask? Yes. Three. We happened to be blessed with amazing and large (and amazingly large) families, and are pretty dedicated to devoting time to each of them on holidays.

So yesterday morning I was up early baking and finishing up the dishes I was sending/bringing to each house.

We drove for an hour to Patrick's parents' home and arrived around 11:00am. We spent quite some time there visiting with his family and friends, watching a little Finding Nemo, and eating, naturally. Then we went to probably 6 or so places searching for a Thanksgiving newspaper (noooo luck). The 30 or so minutes in the car on to my father's mother's home with all 20ish of those there. We watched them play Dominos and I nibbled on some dessert. After a couple of hours there we drove another 25ish minutes to my mother's parents' house where we visted and (at least I) feasted again... Hey, it was supper time, don't judge me. We spent a few hours there before finally heading home where I immediately changed into pajamas and got in bed to watch some quality Thanksgiving tv (Casino Royale and The Godfather...traditional holiday favorites?). I was going to try to make it to a couple of the stores that started their sales at midnight, but considering I fell asleep by 10pm it pretty much wasn't going to happen.

So here I am, watching the game. I just put TinkerBell down for a nap (she actually fell asleep while I was reading to her...what does that say about how interesting I am?) and I am debating getting to work on some school work I have coming up. Not my ideal, but exam/final presentation/panic attack time starts pretty much on Monday, so the longer I put it off the more painful it will be! I hope your weekend is more exciting than mine, and that you are all counting your blessings. Top of my list are: amazing family, great friends, good health, and love. Think about some of your own; we all have so much to be thankful for!

Casey