Is It Naptime Yet

This year my parents went to Ceder Hills Utah to spend Thanksgiving with my Uncle Mike and Aunt Robin and their family. Uncle Mike is my father’s half brother. Andrea and Brien went up to Salt Lake to stay with his family and then they went to my Aunt and Uncle’s for Thanksgiving day, since Salt Lake is only an hour away from Ceder Hills. Andrea and Brien are planning on staying in Ely for Christmas, so I’m not sure when we’ll see them again. Maybe I’ll visit them during Christmas break when Jon is studying for the GRE. Since my parents weren’t here we just had to worry about Thanksgiving with Jon’s family. Since we only had to worry about visiting Jon’s family I figured I could contribute to the dinner and I made some rolls and a banana cream pie. Everyone loved the rolls, even though I thought they we’re just okay. My pie wasn’t cut so no one ate it until Devin, Jon’s nephew, took a couple pieces on the go with him. I had a small piece and didn’t like it either. I think it needed to be in the fridge and I used the generic Jello pudding brand, which made it taste not as good. We have about half of it in our fridge. It might taste a little better now that it’s been refrigerated, but the memory of how it tasted on Thursday makes it less appealing. The food that Annie, Jon’s sister, made was delicious and we got very full while there. I was disappointed because I thought Shauntae, Jon’s niece, would be down, but their family ended up not coming. It was still good to see Jon’s side. We see them pretty much at the holidays and if birthdays come up.

Friday I made a small feast. Really I was tired so I made a turkey breast, beets from our garden, and then we had left over potatoes and rolls from the day before, along with cranberry sauce. The rolls were better the second day. I had yams that I could have made, but when it came down to preparing everything my kitchen was already a little chaotic, so I decided against yams and instead I made two pumpkin pies. Like I said earlier the banana cream pie wasn’t sounding appealing. It was a good Friday. Besides making dinner I can’t remember much about the day. I had an assignment for one of my classes due, so I stayed inside and studied while the girls and Jon played outside in the above average weather. We’ve stayed in the 70’s up until yesterday, Sunday, in which I think we’re finally in the 60’s or 50’s.

Saturday was the big day! Dixie Chicks!! We avoided dishes, and hung around the house a lot. I went over to my sister Kristi’s and watched her kids in the afternoon so she could do some toy shopping. I left Eden at home to take a nap and I took Lilah with me. She had a blast playing with her cousins. I got home took a shower and we dropped the kids off at the Villagomez’s to be watched.
I had the hardest time finding a babysitter for this concert. Our normal babysitter, Kelsey Lee who I’ve known since she was in her mother’s womb, went to Salt Lake this year with her family, instead of just St. George. Then the two girls in our ward that I would trust had a youth dance. I thought one of the older sisters might be able to, but since she graduated high school in May she’s had a party every weekend, and her answer was if there’s not a party I’ll do it. I was going a little crazy. I thought the Villagomez’s would be out of town because her family is in Utah, but luck had it that they’re going up in December for a wedding so they stayed here for Thanksgiving. (Danielle Villagomez is my visiting teacher and she helped me out a lot when my shoulder was stitched up. Her husband also loves our girls. He’s great with kids.) So there is my side note about how hard it is to find a babysitter on Thanksgiving weekend!
We met Carolyn and Derrek for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe inside the MGM. I don’t recommend their seafood selection. It was shrimp and red snapper. The red snapper was good, but they served it with it’s tail still attached. Derek dared me to eat it for $10 but I said he was already paying for dinner so what was the point of making $10.
We had seats against the back wall, and we were just about ten seats shy of being in the farthest spot from the stage. Derrek had also bought seats on the second level, but they had closed their section so Carolyn and Derrek were moved to the first level and sat directly across from the band in the far back. She said they had some annoying girls behind them that kept singing over the sound of the Dixie Chicks. So I am happy that we had our back seats. No one to sing in our ears or throw beer bottles at us. It was a great concert and they did a small encore. Really they finished the show since it appears that encores are now expected of groups. It was a great night and it’s still a little surreal that we were at a concert and in the same room as the Dixie Chicks.(Sure it was a really big room and they looked about the size of barbie dolls but it was the same room.) I really loved the night. We picked the girls up around midnight and got home and crashed. Sunday Jon missed his 6:30 am meeting and we amazingly made it to church on time even though I slept in until 9:20. Our church starts at 11:00 am.

So there is a summary of our Holiday weekend.
I have pictures I need to post of Eden with her black eye. It was so cute and now I kinda miss the rugged looking girl. Happy Holidays!