let there be light

Today was a first. We lit the house with lights. After Church, and then lunch with new friends and old friends we headed home to finish our Christmas decorations. It was the first time I have ever attempted to light the roof of a home, much less my home. Thanks to Claire's cousin Howie we were afforded the lights we needed to make our home the envy of the neighborhood.

After a surprisingly easy two hours of applying clips and snapping the lights on to shingles we were all set to go. The only hindrance was the 30 mph wind and cold gusts threatening to blow us off the roof. We prevailed in the end and now have all our Christmas decor done. Something strange ensues after Thanksgiving, every day off seems extraordinarily great. We made new friends, had a good time with old ones, put up decorations, ate some thanksgiving leftovers and topped it all off by relaxing out a local coffee shop and doing some reading.

We only have more of the same planned for tomorrow. Well that is if you exclude taking the jeep into the shop. Hopefully once we get whatever is wrong with it fixed, it will continue to be reliable for another good 5 or 6 years. We shall see. Anyways, just thought I would post a note on how great the days off have been lately. Hopefully they continue to be that way all the way up and through my vacation in January. Can't wait for that week off.

o christmas tree...

Sorry my blog last night was a rant - when I sat down to write I was exhausted - and the whole Brewster incident had just occurred (apparently Brewster ALSO bit Chance and broke skin...grr). I had intended to blog about our WONDERFUL day after Thanksgiving, but I got distracted by the situation at hand.

So...without further adieu, the day after Thanksgiving story commences. Ha.

Chance was off of work (thank GOODNESS) after having worked almost constantly for four days. We allowed ourselves to sleep in a little...and when we woke up it was nearly time for lunch. The doorbell woke us up - some guy who thought we called in for our dryer to be repaired. That never happened, unless I did it in my sleep. Nothing is wrong with our dryer. Anyway - he must have written down the address incorrectly or something. Oh well - it got us out of bed. (:

We hadn't yet decided if we were going to take it easy, or put up Christmas decorations. We ended up doing the latter (after eating some delicious homemade soup - I'll let Chance tell you all about that since he made it).

It only took us a few hours...well, probably about 5 after it was all said and done, to decorate. It was fun to get all of our things down from the attic and see what we had to decorate with - things we'd forgotten about, and things we loved putting up last year.

We turned on the Christmas music channel on the tv and half made-fun-of, half sang along with the classic holiday tunes. We talked, laughed, and enjoyed each others' company while we put up the tree.


It was raining outside the first part of the day, but once that was over we went outside to begin decorating the outside. I re-lit the garland and pulled grass/weeds out of our currently vacant flowerbed (so that we can plant winter plants asap), while Chance put lights on the bushes. He lit one of the two trees in our front yard, but we decided it looked skimpy/silly so he took those lights down and used them on the fence instead.

Last year, I created a pretty crummy wreath out of some extra garland. When we pulled it out of the box it was squished and looked terrible, so I decided to reshape it. I thought a "P" wreath would be different and more appropriate.


I can't claim all the credit, I'd seen the idea in a blog I read. And, well, theirs look better. But I'm pretty happy with it considering I just used things we had laying around the house, and no form.

We called it quits at dusk. We're still considering lighting the roof - Howie gave us some big lights so we might do that on Sunday or Monday. We're not sure - we didn't even decorate this much last year.


But...it was a fun day. I LOVE the day after Thanksgiving. Leftovers, decorating for Christmas....it's so much fun. (:

Especially the sleeping in part. After last year's escapade with Nicole to the Black Friday sales at 4am, I decided that sleeping was more worth it this year - and that put me in a better mood for the whole day!

Today I've cleaned the car and the house (the car REALLY needed a good vacuuming) cuz Chance's allergies are terrible. The rest of the day: work. But that's okay. Chance has two more days off this week! I'm thrilled. Shoot, I think the spirit of Christmas is upon me. It must be - I'm not generally in this good of a mood on Saturdays!

the dog whisperer

Shoot. I need Cesar Milan to come to our house. Brewster seems to have this bad habit of biting people who try to move him/pick him up/wake him up when he's laying on the futon or in his bed. I can't really figure it out. Chance and I have been watching the Dog Whisperer tonight trying to get some tips...but we're trying - and it's not working yet. Cesar would probably say it's my fault because of the vibe I'm getting off because I'm slightly scared of getting bit again, and slightly angry at Brewster for being such a butt. Tonight is the first time I've EVER seen Brewster respond negatively to Chance. He generally doesn't misbehave when Chance is home - only when I'm home alone (great, so if I lose an arm I won't be able to drive myself to the hospital).

...I guess that's not the only destructive behavior - there's his digging too. I think we've already mentioned that. He's gotten out 3 times in the past 2 weeks. Ugg.

We're gonna have to get some help, I'm pretty sure. Unless we can figure out how to correct his bad behavior on our own. That's the only time he's really mean, or in attack mode. Weird.

I AM 'friends' with Cesar on Twitter. Lol. Maybe he can help me. Persistence pays off I guess. Hopefully there won't be too many battle scars.

thankful for friends

I think Claire and I are in full agreement when I say Thanksgiving is the best holiday ever. Those pilgrims really did a good job with that food agreement they worked out with the Indians. I can eat as much as I want...in fact I had two slices of pie today. I will probably have one more before bed.

After working 45 of the past 75 hours I was ready for Thanksgiving. This year's Thanksgiving was just what I needed. My store and my managers did a great job. We had the best labor % in the city, as well as a solid gain over last year. So I have to brag a little about our success. When it was all said and done, I was very ready for it to be done. After I got off work at 2 today, I headed over to Charlie and Emily's who were kind enough to open their home for Claire and I to enjoy the festivities.


With a plethora of food, no one went wanting. We had sweet potato soufflé, green been casserole, broccoli rice casserole, sweet corn casserole, shrimp diablo, a cheese ball, crab dip, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, rolls, brussell sprouts, Greenberg turkey, and fried turkey.


It was all amazing. Charlie's fried turkey was great and all the casseroles were perfect.


It was a spot on traditional thanksgiving with great friends. Afterwards we had our fill of pecan, pumpkin, and Claire's chocolate ice box pie. We bummed around, took naps, and watched football. I won't speak of the sadness the Aggies have left us with. Maybe someday they can turn around the program and actually have a decent season. Just maybe. Until then I will enjoy my Thanksgiving holiday and food whether we win or lose.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you ate way too much, took a long nap, and can enjoy some delicious left-overs tomorrow!