Thanksgiving 2010

This was such a long holiday weekend, filled with ups and downs, but the downs really weren't all that bad. However, Thanksgiving 2010 will be now known as Illsgiving in our household.

I started my weekend a little early because my Mom, who is visiting from Houston, called me at work to tell me that she was having pain in her left shoulder and my sister (who is a nurse) said we needed to get it checked out to make sure it didn't have anything to do with her heart. So I picked her up and hauled her to an emergency care clinic where we met the nicest doctor I've ever met. He said that he thought it was probably her rotator cuff, but couldn't rule out any cardiac implications so he sent us to the emergency room, by saying "If it was my mom, I'd tell her to go to the er and make sure she's okay."

We went to the emergency room (dreading the inevitable long wait) and to our surprise, there was no one there! Not a single person. She walked right up and was ushered back for evaluation. Anyway, she was evaluated and after several hours, she went home after receiving a steroid shot which relieved her pain almost completely! We were so glad it was nothing serious.

In fact, we went and had Mexican food and margaritas afterward.

Thursday morning, Evie woke up and her eardrum had ruptured. I took her into the pediatrician's office and they prescribed another antibiotic to replace the one she received that Monday for her ear infection. Looks like we may be headed for a third set of ear tubes. Ick.

Thursday at 11 a.m. we went to the Fort Worth Club for our Thanksgiving brunch. Thank heaven we did that this year. It was wonderful. The spread was beautiful and the food was delicious. The very best part was that we didn't have to wash a single dish after dinner.

George has started giving real kisses.
Adorable and irresistible!

The rest of the day was filled with football! Go Aggies!

Chuck and I tackled Black Friday by waking up at 4:30 and heading out to Walmart to pick up some extra special gifts. It wasn't too bad. We shopped until about 10:30 and were exhausted when we got home. Unfortunately, George came down with a fever that day too. Poor kid. I think he caught a rotavirus, which involves high fever, rash, and nasty pooping. (After three kids, I can actually diagnose some of this stuff without a doctor.) He seems to be better now, but he wasn't able to go with us to see the Fort Worth Parade of Lights that evening. It was probably better that way because we were out late watching the wonderful parade with our friends Aaron & Stacey and their son Eli. We went to dinner afterward and I'm pretty sure George would have been exhausted and no one would have had any fun. As it was, we had a blast despite the fact that the kids were practically asleep in their chairs during dinner. Wish I had pictures of the parade. We've lived here in Fort Worth for 13 years and we've never been. I'm pretty sure we'll be going religiously in the future!

The rest of the weekend was filled with lots of Christmas decorating. Two trees, the entire outside, the inside, poinsettias, garlands, mantles, kids' room, everything. I still have some additional things to add to the overall effect, but it was a very full FIVE days. Can you believe that? It's like a whole vacation! I loved it, but I could have done without all the illness!