Now that I'm out of my turkey coma, I thought I'd pop in for a few minutes to recap our Thanksgiving weekend. It was a flurry of activity along with a bit of relaxation. I guess you could say that it was a perfect combination. Plus, I wanted to post about it before Eliot and I are swept away by the wave of orders we got from Black Friday to Cyber Monday! (Things are about to get interesting around here!) Anyways... let's do this!
Last Tuesday was a crazy day. After a late night Monday, Eliot went to work later than we'd planned. I spent the afternoon working on as much as possible. Then, around 9:30 pm that night, Jeremy arrived at our house bearing a gift of McDonald's for my dinner. Jeremy and I watched Olaf Presents (he still hadn't seen it yet) while I ate my food. Then, we talked while Eliot was driving home. After saying goodnight to Jeremy, Eliot and I stayed up for a bit working on more orders and making our plan of attack for Wednesday. Then, we called it a night and went to bed around 2 am.
Wednesday morning, we all slept in until around 9:30. Eliot was taking the day off from work so we could get things done, and it's a good thing he did. (Talk about us hauling butt all day...) Jeremy ran down to Dunkin Donuts to get our breakfast, and I don't think Eliot and I stopped again to take a break for the rest of the day.
After breakfast, Jeremy helped us with a little bit of yard work. Once we all realized that we weren't going to be able to get the lawn mower into the back of the truck, we finished everything else and called it good. Jeremy took a shower, packed up and then left to drive up to Mom and Dad's house.
Eliot and I stayed put finishing orders. We had every intention to leave a few hours after Jeremy, but things didn't go as planned. We didn't have that much to do, but the printers can only go so fast and we were at their mercy. After busting our butts all afternoon, Eliot took 16 packages to the post office before it closed at 4:30.
Then, we got right back to work. Between working on other orders, packing for our weekend trip and getting the house situated, we didn't leave the house until right before 9:00 pm. At this point, we hadn't eaten anything since our Dunkin Donuts breakfast and I was starving. I prayed the entire ride up to Portland that Panera Bread would still be open. (I desperately wanted a Chicken Baja Bowl.) Thankfully, Eliot was still able to order our food 15 minutes before they closed!
Eliot drove the entire ride home because I was completely wiped out both physically and mentally. (I didn't fall asleep, but I'm really glad I didn't have to be the person responsible for driving.) We only stopped at the Gardiner rest stop to use the bathroom and stretch. On the drive, we did see a few deer and a shooting star!
We arrived at my parents' house after 1:00 am. Mom and Dad were still up so we talked with them for a few minutes before heading to bed. We all got a good laugh about how Mom couldn't find all of her Thanksgiving blocks and they said "Happy Hanksgiing". Then, Eliot and I crashed.
However, I didn't get much sleep, because less than seven hours later, I bounced out of bed to my alarm so I could watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Eliot and Jeremy also got up, and when we got downstairs we found Mom and Dad sitting in the living room as well. I was pretty excited to see the parade, and we all enjoyed the Broadway performances, the balloons and the floats.
While we were watching the parade, I also enjoyed watching the animals outside. A bluejay literally landed on the railing outside the window, hopped down it a few times and looked into our living room window after each hop. It was like he was trying to see if we were awake. (Mom joked that it was his way of telling them the bird feeder was empty... apparently, he's done it before.) There were also a few red squirrels chasing each other up and down the big tree outside and chirping loudly.
After the parade ended, Jeremy and I helped Mom and Dad get the rest of the food together and get the table set up. Nana joined us and we had our Thanksgiving meal around 2:00 in the afternoon. It was really nice to all sit around the same table this year, as opposed to last year.
We spent the rest of the day napping, watching television and relaxing. We saw the new Hallmark movie, then watched a few cooking shows. After the 11:00 news, Eliot and I went to bed because we were completely exhausted.
Friday, we slept in. None of us were moving until after 10 am. Even then, Eliot and I had a slow start. We eventually got moving, showered, and got dressed. Eliot, Jeremy and I decided to go to Ellsworth in the afternoon. First, Eliot dropped off our packages at the post office. Then, we stopped at TJ Maxx and we found a few Disney treasures.
After tucking our new treasures in the back of the truck, the boys went to the comic book store. Then, we made a stop at Walmart to pick up a few things for Mom and Dad. We found a few fun things in the Christmas aisle that we plan to cook when we're all home again over Christmas weekend.
When we got back in the truck, I called and ordered personal pizzas for me and Jeremy. Then, I drove us over to Dairy Queen so Eliot could get his dinner. While there, he grabbed a few coloring sheets for me. Then, we swung through the Pat's Pizza drive through to get the pizzas and drove home.
That evening, Eliot and I played Uno at the kitchen table for a bit. It got pretty heated when he kept giving me +2 or +4 cards. Thankfully, Jeremy came to my rescue after a bit. We all giggled through quite a few games while Mom, Dad and Nana watched Hallmark movies in the living room.
Once we had enough of Uno, Eliot and I switched gears. We ended up coloring the Dairy Queen coloring sheets at the kitchen table while watching the San Jose Sharks game. I used a lot of pinks, purples and blues, while Eliot made a pretty rainbow cake. Then, once the game was over, we headed to bed.
Saturday, we woke up to the first snowfall of the year. The trees outside our window were covered in a thin blanket of snow. It was pretty, but it was also cold and nasty outside, so we hung out at the house chilling out most of the day.
Later in the day, Eliot and I went out to dinner with my best friend Katie. The Beacon restaurant was open so we headed there a few minutes before 5:30. When we arrived, Katie was sitting directly in the back. We joined her and had a great time catching up with her. The food was delicious. Eliot got his cheese curds and nachos, while I got the Fettuccine Alfredo with Lobster. It was rich but it was so good!!!
After saying goodbye to Katie, Eliot asked if we could go back up to Walmart again. I didn't care, so he drove up to Ellsworth. While on the ride up, he told me he wanted to get some coloring books because he enjoyed coloring so much. (I always told him how relaxing it was... but I guess it took him actually doing it to believe me.) We made our way to the coloring books and picked a few out. Eliot also bought a pack of 100 colored pencils to bring home with us.
When we got home, Eliot and I broke out our new coloring books and colored dinosaur pictures at the kitchen table. Once we finished those, Jeremy joined us and the three of us opened Jeremy's Villainous game. None of us had ever played before, so we bent the rules a little in order to learn how to play the game. It was really confusing at first, but as the game went on, we all started to understand it more. There were moments when Eliot and Jeremy almost won, but we didn't allow them to in order to keep playing and learning more. Eventually, I was able to complete my task and we decided that we'd learned enough for one night... so technically I won. But I think we were all winners because now we how to play so we can play it over Christmas!
Sunday, we got up ready to work. Eliot and Jeremy went outside with Dad to help him with his Christmas lights and decorations. I packed up most of our stuff while they were outside. By the time I got out of the shower, the boys were back inside waiting for me. Then, Jeremy, Eliot and I all packed up our cars. The three of us said goodbye to Nana, Mom and Dad before getting in our cars and heading home.
Along the way, Eliot and I made a bunch of stops. First, we stopped in Ellsworth to get food at Dairy Queen since we all skipped breakfast. I wasn't feeling well, so I just got a burger. (I think I was just hungry.) Next, we went to the Brewer Walmart to check for business supplies. Then, we stopped across the street at Lowes. (I wanted to see what they still had for Disney Christmas stuff.) Then, we went started our drive south, stopping at the Waterville Walmart to check for business stuff there too. Jeremy had hit the Augusta and Newport stores on his ride up so we skipped those.
When we got to Augusta, Eliot drove to TJ Maxx first. I wanted to get the Tinker Bell mug I'd seen on my birthday, but I didn't get it then since it was so busy. Luckily, they still had one! Then, Eliot went into Barnes and Noble while I sat in the truck. By the time we were leaving Augusta, I was hungry but most of the food stores there were already closed. Eliot stopped at the Topsham McDonald's to get my food.
Then, we we drove straight through to Portland. We had one more stop to make at the Target. I found the earrings I was looking for while Eliot checked out the electronic section. Then, we before leaving I showed him the Stitch shirts I'd found. They had four Stitch Hanukkah shirts left in the Black Friday section and two of them were in our size! We checked out with our new shirts and then made the rest of the way home.
We got home just before 9 pm. We were both exhausted, but we mustered up a bit of energy to get working on a few things for our business. Then, we crashed!
It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but it was nice to get away for a few days and to spend time with my family. Eliot and I also had a busy weekend business wise, so the next few weeks are going to be a bit crazy leading up to the holiday shipping deadline!
It's always good to take a moment to pause and reflect on all of the blessings in our lives. This year, Eliot and I are thankful for time with friends and family, that sales are good and that we got to take a short break before the chaos ensues! °o°
