Thanksgiving-Christmas..a new tradition?

Yes, that's right...Thanksgiving-Christmas. Complete with the Christmas Story read by our own Pastor Joseph Steeves. And there was most definitely turkey...and German Overnight cookies(made this year by Sherri 'cause mom was too busy!) YUM!
Though there was no snow, no Christmas carolers, and no candlelight Christmas Eve service, we still celebrated Christmas! It CAN be done, people! My family may be weird, but now I can say that half of my Christmas shopping is done before Halloween for the very first time ever! What an accomplishment. For me. And I didn't have to do shopping while the mall was filled with over-eager, bustling, annoying shoppers out to get the best Christmas deals. Or with the over-played Christmas carols that are played WAY too soon in our malls! What a relief! Duane hates the malls in the first place, so this could have very well saved our sanity! What a concept, Christmas shopping BEFORE the rush...hmmm.
This wonderfully odd weekend started with a nice one-hour trip...just to get OUT of the flippin' city! Darned construction on long weekends! I'm glad I was driving 'cause Duane was frustrated enough just being a passenger! Once we made our way out of town, the trip went relatively smoothly. I figured I'd probably only last until about Banff...or maybe Lake Louise, but amazingly I made it all the way to Revelstoke!! Stacey can attest to this from our past road-trip experience...I like to get sleepy when driving much longer than an hour. I think I might have even been able to drive all the way to Salmon Arm, but I could tell Duane was getting bored, and I offered him the wheel a little early. I have a feeling I made it as far as I did simply because I STARTED the drive...and it was in the middle of the day when I was fully awake anyway. I am quite proud of myself for this seemingly small accomplishment. Once stopped in Revelstoke, we did our quick switch, and then continued on to Salmon Arm(by this time we were behind schedule because of weather and the fact that I haven't driven the highway, in rain, in a LONG time!). Once in Salmon Arm(shortly after 7pm), we stopped by Carene and Dave's, as per norm., and asked them to join us for dinner. They had just eaten, and were about to head out to a party for Dave's boss, so we just chatted for a bit and went our separate ways. Soon, it will not have to be such quick visits on the way through town 'cause we'll be LIVING THERE!! WOOHOO!! Anyway.
Dinner was uneventful and kinda gross. Wendy's will not be receiving our patronage for awhile, I think. Old crispy chicken burgers made us feel icky. We had to make an emergency pit-stop on the side of the highway outside of Merritt(which almost resulted in an accident) so I could hurl out the door. I didn't actually hurl, but I sure thought I was going to, and I wanted to make sure I didn't do so IN the car. 'Cause that woulda been gross.
The rest of the trip(after I had driven all the "fun stuff" in the rain)was uneventful, and poor Duane had to drive the "boring stuff". We pulled into my parent's driveway at 12:45AM, and quickly made for the house, as we felt we were asleep on our feet. Thank goodness the bed was made! My dear sister even welcomed us...why the heck was she up so late? Whatever.
That night I probably had the worst sleep ever. My mom had done all she could think of to satisfy my picky mattress habits by putting another mattress on the one already there, to take away some of the hardness. It just so happened that the mattress she put on, while softer, was extremely "springy"...meaning the springs could be felt with every inch of my body. Duane didn't notice. I think he got the good side of the bed. I tried and tried to fall asleep, but alas, it did not come. Eventually it did, but for a very short stint. Every time I moved, I felt another spring. My poor mother felt so bad. Kudos for trying, mom. The next night I added a big blanket folded underneath me to get rid of the springs. Was much better. Then I had pillow issues. I brought my own, but on a hard bed, there wasn't enough support on my neck. I had to choose from the few other pillows in the house, and eventually found one that did the job. See, our bed here in Calgary is super soft...almost TOO soft...so I don't have a very puffy pillow, 'cause then there's just too much pillow. But on a hard bed, my neck needs more support, and my own pillow just didn't do the job. Enough with the bunny trail/rant.
Saturday was spent shopping with Jody, visiting Karen & Graham & Ava(thanks guys, we had a great time!)and hanging out with the family in the evening(meeting Jody's new 6'2" boyfriend). We played games and such and just hung out. Good times. We had plans to make cinnamon rolls that night, but it didn't really happen. Bummer.
Sunday morning we were up bright and early for church. Dad had taken a Sunday off at his church to come to church with Duane and I...so that was nice. Mom went to early Sunday School, 'cause she had to work and couldn't go to church. After church Duane and I had lunch at Red Robin's with Stacey. It was great to hang out with her again and catch up, even if it was just for a short time. At least I was there the whole summer to hang out with her when Heidi wasn't available. Glad she had Heidi, too, this time :) Lunch was delicious and filling! I even saw people I knew...what a surprise, eh Stace?
Sunday afternoon was spent kind of just lazing around...I think I slept while Duane watched a movie. When mom came home from work we got busy with dinner...blueberry pancakes! Jody and her boyfriend came home for dinner as well. Since we didn't get around to making the cinnamon rolls on Saturday, we spent the next while messing up, I mean, MAKING up the rolls. *wink wink* Let's just say we had to start over part way through the process because of a communication error and there was a lot of wasted flour, cinnamon, sugar and other such dry ingredients! In the end, though they weren't quite "right", we had yummy cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven to eat just before we went to pick up Sherri and Joe at the airport.
They arrived at quarter to eleven Sunday night, and we were all pretty tired. It was a late "Christmas Eve" for everyone, 'cause once we all got home we stood around chatting for awhile, and then Sherri, Joe, and mom had to wrap presents. We all knew that we'd be sleeping in the next morning for sure!
"Christmas morning" was a bit slow-going. Duane and I took forever to decide to get out of bed, therefore convincing my mom to start getting the Thanksgiving turkey ready for later. We were going to all help her later, after doing presents, but she started on her own, and then we all finally rolled out of bed and helped with that stuff first. It took awhile, but then we all piled into the living room, complete with a Christmas tree(fake), mom's little porcealin village, and our manger scene. I know, odd. We had a great time with gifts...a few surprises along the way...and LOTS of laughing! That's the fun part. Sherri, mom, and dad were all in stitches at one point, with tears streaming down their faces. I can't even remember why Sherri started laughing about one of the gifts I gave her...though I don't think she was laughing AT the gift. Dad was laughing at a huge gift he got...along with a decoy during the unwrapping process(which was just a cassette tape Sherri found sitting by the tape player! *LOL)...that turned out to be a small package of Fig Newtons...his absolute favorite! Mom was immediately laughing when reading the card from all us kids...and the front of the card only said "Merry Christmas" in large letters, and at the bottom in small print said "Happy Thanksgiving". Something set mom and dad off from that, but none of us kids could quite figure it out...then they went on and on and on about it!! We were all laughing at that point, not sure what we were laughing at other than the laughter itself!!
Once gifts were done, we got back to helping with turkey, waited for Nigel(Jody's bfriend) to arrive, and we all went for a walk for some family photos. It was quite sunny and warm out, so the lighting wasn't the greatest, and Duane didn't really like any of the backdrops in the park, but we ended up with a few pictures in the end, since it was the last day we were all together and had to have something.
It was a full house for turkey dinner that night, and it was SO GOOD!!! I was so full after my first helping, I couldn't even eat any more! And there was still pumpkin pie on the menu. Everyone decided it'd be a good idea to go for a walk to the park to wear off the turkey, then come back for pie afterwards. The walk was a lot longer than intended, and we ended up at another park playing on the playground!! It was a LOT of fun!! Once it got dark, we headed for home...and pie!
We all got to bed at a fairly decent time, and Duane and I were up the next morning at 6:30 and out of the house by 7:30. Too early!
We had a great time in Abby spending time with family and friends that we're both very thankful for!!
Our trip home was quick(Duane drove the whole way, and we had good weather), even after a 1 hour stop in Salmon Arm to look at a house we're interested in. Aside from a bit of construction delays, it was easy going and we arrived home around 7pm in time for dinner!
Thanks everyone for a great weekend!!

~K~