Thanksgiving

So, other than the frustration and anxiety that comes with leaving your car in a city 4 hours away from your destination, hoping it doesn't get broken into, and hoping that they can fix the problem in a quick amount of time, our trip was actually pretty good.

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. This year, I cooked with both of my sisters. They didn't cook too much when I was around, so it was a new experience. We had a lot of good food and fun as a family.

Friday, we went out relatively early to do some shopping. I'm not normally a Black Friday kind of person, but we didn't hit any of the really crazy stores, and we did get some good deals. I bought Alann some presents at Target. Then we went to Kohl's. I ended up buying myself a new fake wedding ring, since my real ring wasn't fitting at all. Something about the altitude change made me really puffy. It was annoying. Now the fake one fits better than the real one 90% of the time. My feet were also really puffy the whole time we were there. Saturday my mom took me to get a pedicure, since her masseuse was unavailable, and that helped a little bit.

Saturday was our baby shower with my family and a few friends. It was fun seeing our family. I haven't seen my grandma or aunt and uncle (or anyone in Phoenix) since Grandpa passed away in April 07. I have lots of cute outfits and other assorted goodies for Claire now. I'm looking forward to getting the baby's room done, so that we can actually put all this stuff away, instead of just piling it in there. We also got to play Killer Bunnies, since my mom and my sister's friend are both fans of it. It was fun. I lost. I ended up giving away my carrots near the end of the game because my bunny was dead and I saw the end coming. (If you don't know what I am talking about, you poor sad person. Please come over. We will teach you.) This is one of the few games that I actually enjoy playing more than the actual winning of it. I can lose a game of Killer Bunnies and not be upset (unusual for me and board games) because the game itself is so much fun, and the winner is so arbitrary. Basically, it all comes down to whether or not you have the right carrot in your hand. Imagine playing Monopoly and the winner isn't determined by who has the most money or who bankrupts last, it's determined by who owns one specific piece of property and no one knows which property that is. You could be totally poor, but if you own Park Place at the end of the game, you are the winner.

Sunday we were supposed to be leaving, but since we weren't, we went to my old ward. I knew very few people there. It was nice. The talks were actually pretty awesome. They were both about debt and overcoming it, which I don't think I have ever heard in our ward here. (The talks here are often "my family did this thing and my ancestors are these pioneers". They are pretty lame. Sometimes they are funny, but really, the old people just like to ramble on about themselves and their lives and there never seems to be any real doctrinal purpose to them. At least we have Weston to entertain us.)

Monday I called and talked to the repair shop, then we just kind of hung about all day. It was a really lazy day. We had lunch with my sister, which was fun, but that was about all we did.

Tuesday we finally left. I had fun visiting my family, but I was really ready to be home. The bed wasn't comfortable, the dogs were stressed out and shedding EVERYWHERE, I was really kind of bored. I like down-time, but I also like to be productive. I didn't feel like I was accomplishing anything, because I wasn't. Five days of doing nothing purposeful was enough. The dogs did have fun and Nicki actually played with the boxers a lot. They box, which she wasn't used to at first, but it was good for her to be on the receiving end of it for once. She is always biting on Tanner when they play. I don't think I have ever seen him bite her. All in all, it was a good time. I just needed a vacation after I got home.

Baby watch: Claire is getting to the point where she is moving a lot, and it almost hurts when she does. She is expanding into my ribcage, making it hard to breathe, and I keep getting this pain in my side when I stand or walk for too long (too long being about 3 minutes). We have another ultrasound scheduled for after Christmas, to check out the low placenta issue. My doctor is pretty sure it is out of the way, but finally he talked himself into it after arguing with himself for about 2 minutes at the last appointment. He's a funny guy. I'm also going to ask for the hospital tour since Alann will be with me and I don't know if he will be able to come to any of the other appointments after that.