thanksgiving

in the teacher world, making it to thanksgiving break is monumental (emphasis on mental)! it's our first "extended" time off, and it prefaces the fact that there is a mere 3-ish weeks until we are off for Christmas break... the most wonderful time of the year!

last monday and tuesday, we were held captive for 12 hours each day for conferences (monday was a regular work day, and then we had 4 hours of conferences afterwards)... I honestly didn't think that we were gonna make it, but, on tuesday evening, at 7 p.m. sharp, I fa-la-la'd my way out of school and went home! unfortunately, my time off equals c's busy time. every night for the past week, she has been working her main event, the festival of the trees... so, I have basically been running the show solo up in here.

the neverending day!

on wednesday, we had planned to take the trio out to breakfast before school, but, duty called, and c had to get to (and stay at) work earlier than expected, so i took the kids for timbits and dropped them off at school .afterwards, i went and finished up the shopping for our feast.

timbits!

because we planned to go shopping thanksgiving evening (don't judge), we wanted to have our meal by 4... so we divided and conquered... c took q to her aunt's and i took r and l to my mom's. i got home first, so i finished dinner. the problem was that we were so full from our first thanksgiving meals, that we didn't fully enjoy our delicious second thanksgiving meal. while we were cleaning up, my aunt showed up to watch the tots, and c and i were off on our adventures.

we really didn't have anything to get... except a laptop, really. my beautiful hp finally really decided that it could go on no longer, and just went kaput! i am currently using my mom's old toshiba (which i hate... maybe because it is archaic?)... my heart decided that it wanted to stick with an hp, so off i went to find a deal. unfortunately, we didn't make it for the big deal o'the night, so i wound up just ordering an hp from the company... we did end up with a few things for the kids, and, on small business saturday, i bought myself some beautiful stoneware pieces (a handwarmer mug and a wine chiller/utensil holder).

here we go!

mucci!!!

c hates birds, but she liked clyde

and so did rhys!

sharing sisters

getting the first chocolate egg nog of the season!

taking a break!

this thanksgiving break also found us haunting the festival of the trees a few times. other than the trans siberian orchestra concert that we attended a few weeks ago, this is one of the only holiday happening events that we are going to experience... the conservatory foolishly (in my opinion) decided to nix the grinch performance and dance to the nutcracker this year. i was seriously bummed out about this... we had been going to the grinch performance since c and i first got together, and we loved to take the kids... but now? now there is no grinch, people! there is only the nutcracker... and what are we expected to do with THAT?!?!

lies

pin the heart on the grinch

guess who those darlings are?

mailing a letter to santa!

during the past week or so, we also finished (for the most part) decorating... the putting up and decorating of the tree only set us back one bottle of wine.

the two ornaments from the girls' first Christmas in the nicu

it's hard to believe that they were about the size of those stockings when they were born!

in other news, lyncoln has her first loose tooth, which means that quinn believes that she should also have a loose tooth. i wasn't quick enough on my feet, so i told her that sure, she had a loose tooth, too. while the kids were finishing up dinner, the following conversation took place: 

lu: quinn! hey, quinn! I might have two teeths loose, quinn! (she doesn't- she has one loose)
q: yeah, lank-in! I have two tooths loose, too! (she doesn't have any loose)
lu: no, you don't quinn! but don't worry... come here and i'll make sure that you have two teeths loose!

and if that isn't bad enough, rhys is excited to make a wish on the turkey wishbone, because: 

r: mama? I already know what I'm gonna wish for. I'm gonna wish that it will be christmas every single day.
me (uh oh): well, bub... what if you don't get the bigger half?
r: oh, I want it more than anything, so I will get the bigger half.
me: you do know that you can carry christmas spirit in your heart all year long, right?...
r: yeah. That's nice and all, but after I wish on that wishbone, tomorrow will be December 25th, and every day after that will also be December 25th... just think: we will be on Christmas break FOREVER!!!

really, who can argue with that? i'm with the kid... but, i'm gonna have to break his spirit one way or another, so i'm going to make sure that i get the bigger half of the wishbone. to dry up his little rhysie cup tears, i'll let him help me make my wish.

and, on that note, it's time for our "elf on the shelf" show ritual... which reminds me... we have to find that sneaky elf, for tuesday he must make his appearance!!!