November 2017-Turkeys, Trees, and Tongues (gross)

This sweet brown dog doesn’t always get much blog attention, because he is overshadowed by Mr. Needy (Walter) and Mr. Naughty (who else?). But, just like my other middle child, he is the easiest, most laid back of the three, and I thought he deserved a quick picture.

Directly after the whirlwind month of travel and Halloween, you’d think we’d settle right in for some relaxing down time in November. Nope!! Not us. It’s a rare occasion these days if we have a weekend that’s not packed to the brim with activities. We are comfortable in chaos.

First up, a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge with Mary Elizabeth and Libby for a 9-year-old birthday. Once again, it was just a girls trip, so my boys stayed at home and likely ate pizza, cuddled with dogs and stayed up too late watching some ridiculous TV.

Nine must be the year when they begin to develop their “fierceness”….leaving the sweet little girl behind, to be replaced by this. Mind you, that’s my child and not Libby. We are in big trouble. Fashionista in the making…maybe.

Speaking of fashionista, here’s M.E. again. I think she’s made an appearance on the blog quite a bit of late, and from these pictures you can see why I love hanging out with her. Yes, those are her pajamas she’s wearing in the second picture…at the restaurant/bar.

And, this is her several hours later. Same pajamas, plus several martinis. There is also a similar picture from the next morning, but with her extending 2 middle fingers at me as I took the picture. I decided it was not blog friendly.

And, before you say that I only post crazy pictures of Mary Elizabeth and never any of myself, I give you this gem. We were nursing those hangovers (see martinis) with a quick Bloody Mary and a blow-up Unicorn. While this was happening, the girls were off throwing our money away in the arcade. Some of you may ask where all the pictures of the kids are during this weekend of kid fun….we were not those moms on this trip, I’m afraid.

The next day, it was back to the grindstone. This is what said grindstone looks like with 2 of the laziest dogs known to man. I try and sneak upstairs without them knowing, so that I can fold laundry on my bed while I watch some trashy TV show. It never fails…they have some sort of sixth sense about it and immediately come up to lay in the pile of clean laundry. What’s sad about this is that Walter can’t actually jump up onto the bed….so I willingly lift him up there. #spoileddogs

Next up for the month is the Super Bowl of all eating events. I’m pretty sure I call it that each and every year on the blog, so it must be true. I think each year I also tell a story about how much John hates turkey and how we’re forced to make something else just to appease the princess. This year was no exception and we were having a smoked brisket, a smoked turkey and strangely some smoked salmon. Does anyone see a theme here? Now, I’ve been through enough of these smoking situations with John to know that I’d better have a back-up turkey roasting in the oven….just in case.

Either way, my little helper and I got right to work. Malory is amazingly good at cracking eggs. Like better than her father. It’s rare that she breaks the yolk and almost never gets a shell in there.

While Malory and I were slaving away in the kitchen, the rest of my family could be found doing something like this….

I mean, look at Walter. That is one relaxed dog with his eyes rolled back and his tongue sticking out. And, again let’s discuss how spoiled he is. None of the dogs are supposed to be up on the WHITE duvet cover, and yet there he is. And someone lifted him up there. It’s no secret who rules the roost around here.

The big day arrived and all manner of Harris Family members descended upon my house to be fed and entertained. We got right to work with the merriment of the day…..who needs dinner?

And, since the kids get silly after their third mimosa, I ordered this awesome paper tablecloth as an alternate activity. It comes with Thanksgiving themed crafts, word games, coloring, etc. My kids love this kind of stuff….

…and clearly so do I. Now before I get flamed for this picture, please know that it was a joke. Reese was sitting right next to me at the time. I got a toothy grin, followed by a frown and a “Hey!”

All that merriment brought us to about noon, and dinner wasn’t going to be ready for a solid 4 hours still. I’ll have you know that it was NOT because we were waiting on dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy OR cranberries. I’ll give you two guesses as to why the wait. If you guessed smoked anything, you’d be right. So, what were we to do but play 200 games of Candy Land while we waited…..

That’s the end of the Thanksgiving pictures. I’m afraid. We had dinner that was delicious, followed by friends coming over to sing karaoke-style well into the wee hours. Just like the Pilgrims and Indians did.

On the Saturday after Turkey Day, we hosted a Friendsgiving for all of the “boys” and their growing families. (I really need to come up with a name for the group of boys that is PG-rated. Basically, they are the core group of John’s friends from childhood, high school, and college. Most of them have FINALLY found lovely ladies to marry and start families with, and we all try and get together as often as 8 men, 7 wives, and 17 kids allows). All of this to say that by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, Mr. Harris had had all of the adult beverages his 230-pound body could take. So, what did I do? I made him go hunt down the family Christmas tree and string it with lights.

You’ve got to pay to play, right?😉

Walter and Charlie were very supportive.