thanksgiving weekend blitz

the theme of this weekend was "make it up as we go" or "best laid plans" or something like that because what a crazy weekend.

THE PLAN: it was technically my in-laws "turn" for thanksgiving but family circumstances (39 weeks pregnant family that couldn't come, another family's child custody situation, another sibling moving, etc) we decided to switch and be with my side instead.  plus my grandma was visiting.  my parents had gone to visit her, brought her home with them so she could spend a week/Thanksgiving with us at my mom's house and then my mom and I would drive her home, stay with her for a few days to work on a Christmas project for my kids.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED:

the first part of the week was our usual chaos: Daddy travelling on business, preschool, dance classes, the gym, etc.  We added some extra chaos with preparing for the inspection and appraisal on Wednesday which meant a late night deep cleaning.  After that appointment, Daddy had to squeeze in a few hours of work before we headed north to my parent's house.  Things there had already gotten a little crazy.  My dad has had some worsening back problems (he keeps problems well hidden until they are near-debilitating) and the doctors decided on a 3-series procedure of injecting steroids and lidocane into five of his vertebrae in attempt to repair/rebuild his discs.  So he had been instructed to stay down as much as possible.  So we arrived late Wednesday night, the girls having been given strict instructions to not even touch him (he didn't listen and insisted on some gentle cuddles).  We let them play for a little while and headed to bed. My favorite part of our playtime was a surprise my Butterfly had been working on.  Long ago, my brothers learned and performed a song in the ward talent show.  It's been a family favorite ever since but no one could remember the verses, only the chorus.   So I found it online, taught it to her, and she performed it for my parents and grandma...while jumping on a trampoline and dancing.

The next morning, I got up early to help prepare our Thanksgiving feast, which was now to be held at my brother's house so my dad could rest without a house full of kids.  The girls played quietly (was probably/hopefully a nice distraction for my dad--he's not a the kind of person who can sit still for very long so this has been rough to feel so limited).  We did a little craft (shaping waffle cones into cornucopias and filling them with m&ms for their cousins, thanks pinterest!).  I brought up the most recent set of dvds I had made from converting old home movies.  I put in one for my dad to surprise him, a home movie from 1950-1956 and then watched his expression as he saw his dad come onto the screen, looking so young and healthy.  It was a fantastic moment and that single moment made it well worth the effort its taken to convert the movies.  Both of his grandmothers are in the movie, as well as adorable footage of him as a baby, learning to walk and playing at the beach.  What a treasure.

Eventually we loaded the feast into the car, settled my dad in to rest while we celebrated without him and drove to my brother's house.  We played with cousins and feasted on our celebratory meal.  My husband helped my brother fix up an old foosball table from a yard sale and get it into near perfect working order.  We browsed the ads for Black Friday and generally had a great, relaxing time with family.  I was cleaning up dishes and preparing dessert when my grandma went out to check on her dogs.  Somehow she got tangled in their leashes and fell face first on the driveway, resulting in a quick trip to the ER for stitches and to check for a concussion.

On Friday morning, my mom and I snuck away for some Black Friday shopping.  Typically, we've done some door buster-/early morning chaos and are glued to amazon's lightening deals throughout the day.  But since my dad was out of commission  grandma was injured and having a rough night and we were now babysitting my adorable niece, we didn't want to leave in the middle of the night and risk someone needing help.  But by 8 am, we felt ok to leave my girls with their daddy and did a little shopping.  It ended up being a quick trip and we hurried home to take care of our family.

We packed up and headed out.  Husband and I had a few errands to run and my mom was helping grandma shop for a new car.  But due to her new injury, her (very bruised) eye was swollen completely shut and she couldn't even drive.  Fortunately, she already knew exactly what she wanted so she ended up buying a car anyway.  (Maybe they took pity on her obviously roughed up appearance.) By the time we finished all of our errands, it was near dark so we brought grandma home to our house to spend the night.

My mom didn't feel comfortable leaving my dad, we were now a day behind schedule and now grandma had a new car that she couldn't drive.  So the scheduled trip to grandma's house (to take her home and work on the Christmas project) had been planned and changed and adjusted several times.  But eventually we decided that I would drive grandma home, do the project myself and find a ride home.  We had a great drive, stopping often to stretch and do a little shopping.  Along the way we talked for hours and I got to hear her recount memories of my grandpa, trips they'd taken, their lives growing up and raising kids.  We experimented with all the new buttons and gadgets in her fancy new car and thoroughly enjoyed the comfort it offered.  We arrived in her home town just as the Christmas parade started.  So we quickly parked and got out to watch the fun floats and lights as they passed.  And then went to her house to begin "my project".

Last summer, I decided to make new quilts/bedspreads for my girls and surprise them at Christmas.  I picked out the fabric but didn't manage to get them done before baby arrived, I had my foot surgery and then launched into the holidays.  So I put the project off for a year.  But again, our schedules filled up and I didn't get around to it until now.  My grandma has a full-sized, long-arm quilting machine and let me use it to make their quilts this weekend.  The fabric I bought is ADORABLE but the machine is rather unforgiving and it took awhile to learn to make my lines smooth.  But hopefully my girls won't notice the many mistakes and love the finished product anyway.  So the quilts are pieced and quilted.  I still need to do the bindings (my mom is the binding expert so I'm hoping to beg her help) and I need to sew the pillow sham and window valance.  And then we will surprise them for Christmas...and then probably store it all until we move into our new house in six months.

So the first evening at my grandma's house, I pieced the tops together and stayed up late to finish quilting the first one.  The next morning, grandma helped me put on the second quilt and now with a little more experience, I managed to get that one quilted a little more smoothly than the first.  Somehow I managed to get all three quilts done (in less than 20 hours) before I met with some friends that were passing through and let me ride home with them.  I didn't get to help my grandma with some projects as we hoped but will go down again soon.  I'm thrilled to have this giant step of the project finished and can't wait to see what the girls think.

Last night, I arrived home around 11:00 to relieve grandma, got a quick kiss from my girls and we all settled into bed.  It seems like we packed a whole lot of excitement and accomplishments into one weekend and I'm thrilled to have a monday to now recover, process and prepare for another week.