Thanksgiving Weekend

What a whirlwind of a weekend!  I'm pooped!

Wed. night Drew wasn't feeling so great so Andrew and I watched the Lion King and then stayed up talking over chocolate milk until midnight!  He's such a little chatter box and what am I supposed to say when he tells me, "I don't get to talk to you when I'm in TN very much so can we stay up just a little bit longer."  Of course I think he's already learning how to manipulate "the system" where ever he is, which I guess most kids of blended families do at some point, I try to keep my guard up but that night I let him slide and we stayed up chatting.  I love catching up on his friends, what's going on in school, his new likes or dislikes, and whatever else he wants to tell me.

Thanksgiving was great.  Of course the food was wonderful, Drew's tenderloin was perfect.  We had a small group for lunch: Mimi, Freddie, Aunt Erin, and Mama Day.  My sister and nieces came by for dessert that afternoon, where Andrew discovered he like sweet potato pie. His Daddy was very pleased. :)

Friday we went to watch the Tigers play!  In the stadium Andrew held his hands over his ears the entire first half.  "This is the loudest thing my ears have ever heard!"  And I must admit that Tiger stadium was the loudest I've heard it in a very long time.  So we left just after half time and watched the rest of the game at Chili's, with a vow to remind Andrew when he's begging us to go to the games about this day, when he wanted to leave early during the last home game when the Tigers were undefeated because it was "too loud!"  ;)

 My favorite Tiger fans.

Saturday was birthday party day for Andrew!  It was a yucky day outside so we canceled the spacewalk and after the pizza party at our house we took the kids to see a movie or Andrew's choice, The Muppets.  (Aunt Erin and I were secretly hoping he would pick the Muppets!)  It was pretty hilarious and very Muppet-esque.  As we were leaving the theater Andrew turned and said "This was a great birthday for me!"  He loved the movie, he sang the closing song the rest of the afternoon. :) 

 

 Good morning presents, who doesn't love those?!

 Mmmm, mmmM.  Love that face.

 Now there are some handsome Andrews.

 Birthday kisses.

 Carrie Addis!

 The boys:  Brady, Andrew, Triston, & Cole

 Andrew's reaction to Battleship, lol!

 And to Wii Monopoly!

 Make a wish!

On Andrew's last night at home we let him sleep with us, it's become a tradition.  As our bed filled up with a Daddy, a Do-Da, a puppy, and a seven year old little I thought, I couldn't wish for much more right now.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

So like I said I've been down with the funk for the last three days.  I stayed home sick from work Monday, made myself go to work on Tuesday and my co-workers pretty much told me not to come back until I was well. I'm guessing I looked as bad as I felt, so today Jax and I both had our shots...not at the same place of course! Jax had his second set of shots and I got my most favorite shot ever, the steroid shot.  I've been Speedy Gonzales-ing around the house ever since and I probably won't get much sleep tonight...or at least I usually can't sleep after a steroid shot and Drew says I haven't shut up since either, so if I run a few rabbits in this blog I apologized.  "Blame it on the dru-u-u-u-gs." 


Ok, so on this cool, crisp (finally) Thanksgiving Eve I am thankful for so many things.  Some big, some small, and some only I could be thankful for but nonetheless I am indeed grateful for it all.

• My main man, Andrew.  When he came skipping through the door last night I couldn't believe how much he's changed in a month.  His torso is catching up with his legs, his face is a little rounder, his snaggle tooth smile isn't so snaggly, but what has changed the most is his hair color.  It's the darkest I've ever seen it, even his eyebrows are brown!  His hair always gets lighter in the summer, but this fall his hair has definitely crossed over to the dark side.  Which, to me, makes him look even more like his Daddy Day-o.  I do believe he will fit the description of "tall, dark, and handsome" to a T!  We had a great day today.  We work on phonics, took care of Jax, his cousin Cole(d) came to play, made his Daddy a sweet potato pie, and made place cards for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

My dark eyebrowed cutie pie!

 Working on his short vowel sounds.

 Cole helping Andrew out with his Christmas list to Santa.

(I forgot I drank thank Mt. Dew probably not the best idea.)

 An artist at work.  :)

• Big slabs of juicy beef.  My hubs doesn't like your traditional holiday proteins of turkey and ham, so when we do holidays at our house you can almost bet you'll get a delicious piece of beef...I mean it is what's for dinner.  So I scored a fine tenderloin from a local butcher and my personal chef is going to have it tasting o-so-right.

Seasoned with olive oil, fresh garlic, rosemary, and wrapped in bacon. ............................

sorry a drop of drool jammed my keyboard. ;)  I'll save the rest of the menu for tomorrow.

• A reason to set the table.  My how my tune has changed.  My Dad would always make us set the table of Sunday lunch and I hated it, ever second of it.  I would peruse the kitchen scoping out every dish trying to limit the silverware down to the bare essentials.  But then Dad would walk through and ask, "Where's the spoons?", even though not a single dish needed a spoon for consumption!  Ew, I can still see myself rolling my eyes.  But now I love setting my table, so what if it's only because I want to use my fine silver or my Maw Maw Nita's china.  I mean a fine meal shouldn't be eaten off of a paper plate, the cooks' creations deserve some respect!  Okay, all that said my table is all ready to go for tomorrow!  We all had a hand in dressing it up for a great Thanksgiving meal.

 Thanks to my man for cutting my gourds to fit a tea light.

 My favorite, is of course the place cards Andrew made for each of us.

  Ta-Da!  Simple, yet very Thanksgivingish.

• The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Oh my gosh I can't wait!  I'll be up at 6am to get my yeast rolls     a-rising and then I'll be counting down until the start of the parade!  My bucket list definitely includes going to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  Hmmm....maybe I should do that for my 30th Birthday, then Andrew could go too.  I wonder if I could talk my folks into going also?!
  

Welp, I'm being pulled on to go watch the Lion King, I hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow!  

Count your blessings, name them one by one. 

Count your many blessings, see what God has done!

Thankful Project: Day 22

Today I am thankful for:

• My Mama.  It's her birthday today!  I love her so much and I am so thankful I was blessed with a mom that loves and cares for me in a way that God intended parents to love their children.  So many people have moms who are selfish and put themselves before their children in many different manners.  I am so thankful for the relationship I have with my mom today.  I can't imagine not having her as an intricate part of my support system or my everyday life.  No one can take the place of your own mother, as a stepmama I know this all too well!  No matter what, I know I can always call her and she'll be where ever I need her to be.
• Commercial airlines.  Drew is flying to Nashville to pick up our little man today!  Can I get a Whooo Hoooo!  The weather is pretty nasty here so I'm grateful that they will be flying commercially.  And it's only an hour flight which is much easier on Andrew and on us.  Let's face it the drive b/t here and there blows, especially with a little boy who gets car sick.  "My belly huuuuurrrts!"  Poor baby.  I'll be glad when Andrew is old enough to ride in the front seat for our car trips, which hopefully will be few and far in between since our plane will be ready for flight in two weeks! 
•  Rue La La.  Once again I must verbalized my gratitude for this website.  I have done a lot of Christmas shopping on Rue La La this year and I'm pretty excited about giving all of my great buys to all of my favorite people!
• Afrin nasal spray.  Drew and I have both had a terrible cold.  Drew had it last week and now I have it.  Without this stuff I just don't think I would have made it through the day!  Here's hoping Andrew doesn't catch it, cause Lord knows I won't be able to stay away from all his cuteness.  I've been taking antibiotics, poly-vent, mucinex, and about 1000 mgs of vitamin C since Saturday so hopefully I'm over the worst of it.  I'm sure a few of your prayers couldn't hurt either, please and thank you!  For all you organic chemistry lovers out there, heres the chloromethylation reaction and further transformtion with ethylene diamine which gives you oxymetazoline, the active ingredient in Afrin.   

Yes I did look it up and yes I am a nerd.

A Trip Back in Time

Saturday Drew, Jax, and I headed out to Mr. Jim Jenkins' for his yearly making of sugar cane syrup.  My Dad and I used to go every year when I was little.  Mr. Jim is a black smith by trade, he's pretty famous for his iron workings on buildings in New Orleans that have been restored.  

I always loved going to Mr. Jim's with my Dad and I have many great memories on my visits there.  I was attacked by a peacock who left a scratch just below my right eye, apparently I got a little too close collecting his feathers.  I traded licks on an ice cream cone with about five catahoula curs.  And one time I came home with a baby goat, Tiny, who thought she was a dog.  I would wake up early before my parents and let her in the back door and sneak her into my room.  I'm so thankful for memories like these!  :)

Mr. Jim used to use horses and mules to grind his sugar cane, similar to this picture.

Put now he uses a power mill connected to an old John Deere to extract the sweet cane juice.

The sugar cane juice flows into a big stainless steel vat where it's skimmed and cooked for about four hours over a wood burning oven.

The wax from the cane rises to the top, just before boiling Mr. Jim skims the waxy layer off.  When I asked him how many times he skims his syrup he said, "Oh, about a thousand."  And I believe him, one thing is for sure Mr. Jim isn't in a hurry about anything and patience is a virtue, at least when is come to making syrup!

This building Mr. Jim calls his "museum."  It houses many artifacts from his life's travels: Brazil, Africa, and all over the US.

 Mr. Jim does things the way people were doing them in the 1800's and it is definitely a site to see.  Black smithing is one of those dying trades, with a few more decades it will be something we only read about.

 I can't wait to get my hands...well biscuit or sausage, into some of this year's syrup!!  I was so glad Drew was able to see just how this delicious treat is made:  with love, family, time, and generations of knowledge.