Blarg.........

'Tis the eve before the dreaded Monday. Not just any Monday but the Monday after the long Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving day was lovely; despite the fact that I created the entire dinner on my own with little help from anyone (but thanks, Harrison, for helping a little bit!). I had actually been dreading making the whole big meal. I'm not great at getting a meal to come together at the right time and have everything hot and ready, especially a meal with so many components. I wasn't really all that excited for Thanksgiving anyway - it was just us and my ex, so it's not like we were expecting company. In fact, the house was quite messy. But as the day wore on, I actually kind of enjoyed doing all that work, spending hours in the kitchen creating what turned out to be a lovely and delicious meal. I even whipped up a couple of pies, which I had not planned to do, and had already purchased some frozen pies. And although they were really lopsided and strange-looking, they tasted good . At the last minute I even managed to create a pretty tablescape with candles and fall decorations.

But then.........the rest of the weekend was just pure laziness. Sleeping in, laying about, eating leftovers. And more leftovers. And more leftovers. In fact, I've had nothing but turkey, sweet potatoes, gravy, mashed potatoes and stuffing the entire weekend. I'm in serious need of a pizza. Or a salad. Or anything not containing turkey.

Adding to the blahs was the fact that it was pretty rainy all weekend (well, except for Friday, when it was beautiful and sunny and I begged my husband to get out in the sun but we didn't even leave the house until the sun was almost set!). We didn't participate in any Black Friday frenzy; I am fundamentally opposed to shopping on Black Friday unless it's online, but we did return a few things to Home Depot and Fred Meyer. Exciting stuff, I tell you.

I did get some things organized and weeded out and found two awesome new crafts to do which might turn into super cute Christmas presents (should I ever find the time, sigh!). My husband spent an entire day in bed, retreating downstairs only to fetch food and sodas. I did some online shopping, but we're broke so I kept having to transfer money from savings to cover my online purchases. Argh. Hate Christmas when there's no money. Also, the few days before Thanksgiving I had done some shopping after work and was woefully inconsiderate of the budget (whatever that is) so I spent an hour or so adding up what I spent so far (gulp!).

The kids are absolutely giddy over Christmas and "can't wait", and while I do love the season, it's hard to share their excitement when I'm the one shopping, fretting over the money, wrapping, preparing, baking, attending, coordinating and executing. Christmas is a busy, busy time.

We took our annual "Christmas picture" and, as usual, I turned into Sgt. Commander Mom and ordered everyone around and got irritated at the general lack of compliance that comes with taking Christmas pictures. Normally my kids are such hams. But only when they are the single subject in the picture. When it's a group photo? All bets are off. I honestly don't know why I even bother, but once a year I'd like a picture of all of us together. In the end, one of our goofiest poses made it onto the Christmas card, along with a few others, because, as my eldest put it, "that's more like our real family". It's true. We are nuts.

On Thanksgiving my son did a very graphic rendition of "I'm Sexy and I Know It", imitating the music video complete with pelvic thrusts and "wiggle, wiggle". It was totally inappropriate and over-the-top hysterical. I won't post it here because we've had our share of "stolen" pictures and I don't want it to get into the wrong hands, but if you're friends with me on Facebook, you can watch it and laugh, too. Or be appalled. Either way.

Today I woke up and my whole body hurt. My skin, my hair, everything. Flu? Not sure. I don't have a fever or stomach upset. But all of my muscles ache and I'm uncomfortable, which has made for a very unproductive day. I did manage to take my college daughter to coffee before she made the drive back to school. And I worried excessively, as I often do, over her driving across the mountain pass in icky weather. Jeff made the same trek about two hours later to pick up daughter number three and is on his way back now. I worry. I always worry.

And tomorrow is my first "official" day at my new job. I've already been there three days but technically as a "sub" so tomorrow is my first day on the payroll as a regular employee. I'm excited but anxious because I'm feeling so blah and I hope I feel better by tomorrow so I can greet the kids with enthusiasm. I am really excited about my new job.

I wonder what it is about "vacation" weekends that makes us so lazy? If we had family and friends in town visiting I'm sure we would have done a number of fun things. But it was just us. The kids were off doing their own things, one was out of town, and Jeff and I, well......we just were lazy. It's nice to just stay home sometimes and putter around and do stuff, but somehow this long weekend was a little TOO much relaxing. Jeff wanted to go fishing, but his buddies backed out. I wanted to go shopping but I ran out of money! But we still could have done any number of fun things for free, even just taking a walk in the sunshine.

Today I went through the holiday guide in the paper and made a list of fun (and free!) things we could do in the coming weeks to get in the holiday spirit. Currently my kids are cleaning in preparation for the indoor holiday decorations to come out (Jeff, bless his heart, already did the outdoor ones last week). Maybe once I see the stockings or our sad little $12 artificial tree we've been meaning to replace each year but can never justify the cost (despite the fact that it broke last year and fell on my HEAD), or the window clings we've had since the kids were babies in the windows, or the Western-themed Santa that dances and sings "Holly Jolly Christmas", or my Nativity set that doesn't match anything but I love anyway on the piano, maybe then I'll be more in the Christmas spirit.

Or maybe when I make that first batch of homemade Bailey's...........God bless us, one and all!