What day is it?

Oh my goodness! This weekend has been insane....and I didn't even cook a full Thanksgiving dinner. We went to my parents' house for dinner. I brought along pineapple salad, mashed and sweetened sweet potatoes (or were they yams...I always forget which is which), extra white potatoes (my mom thought 5lbs would be enough LOL!) and a few extra things. We ate a bit on the late side (5:00) which worked out well for Drew, Michelle and Val. They went to their boy/girlfriends' houses first. It also allowed my brother to come and get "real" food as he put it. Seems he's not too fond of Melissa's mom's culinary skills with a turkey and stuffing. My sister cooked for Ed's family. Her and the girls showed up later in the evening for pie. My dad had their picture christmas tree set up on the porch. It's a small fake tree which features pictures of individuals in our extended family. Amazingly Sean didn't touch one ornament. Go Sean! No one wanted to get a family picture done like we normally do. Seems they thought it wouldn't be right without Liz there. Unfortunately I'm thinking that having them all together at the same time is getting less and less likely each year. We stayed way too late and pulled into our driveway around 12:45am.

Once inside I hit the ads and wrote out a list of things I'd try to price match at Walmart. I jumped online quick to see if it was possible to order anything I wanted online. Most things I wanted were out of stock so no luck. I'll have to remember to do it during the early evening hours on Thanksgiving like I did last year. It was a little after 3 and I couldn't figure out whether I wanted to head to the store and try to get home as soon after 5am (when the sales started) as I could. Or go to bed and just meander into the store whenever I got there since there wasn't anything I REALLY wanted and was willing to fight anyone for. I decided to jump into bed and see what happened. I had a hard time falling asleep and almost got up. I had started to doze off just before Michelle walked into my room at 3:30 to ask if I was going shopping and what time did I want to leave. I said now and got up.

Walmart didn't seem nearly as busy as it had other years. I noticed they had instituted quite a few new tactics to control the crowd for the big ticket items so maybe that was it. Usually there's a deafening roar as it rings 5am and people rush to get the deals when the plastic wrap comes off the displays. This year they weren't keeping tabs on the 5am only displays so people were digging into them beforehand and the roar didn't happen. I'm wondering if that was on purpose or just lack of manpower to see that things stayed wrapped up. Anyways we got a few deals then headed to Big Lots for a couple things. Michelle wanted to stop into work and pick up her check so I naturally ran through there and got some deals too. Then we grabbed some breakfast and headed home. I was exhausted so immediately jumped into bed for a light 2.5 hour nap.

One of the reasons for the light nap was that I checked my email after getting home from my parents'. There was news that Gwen, our friend from church, had passed away that morning. It hit me hard even though I knew it was inevitable (she had cancer and wasn't seeking treatment). Then Val woke me to let me know that Janna had called looking for her to tell her that Janna's future FIL had died that morning. Also that John had gotten a call shortly after Janna's that his aunt was in a car accident. Val woke me later to let me know that John's aunt didn't survive. :o(

Needless to say I was still exhausted after my nap. I knew it was a bad idea to go shopping but I couldn't miss it. The really bad thing was that I still had to go to the Carrier Dome and do concessions for the Syracuse basketball game. It's funny though that as tired as I was, once I there and going...I felt fine. Now the ride home....that was a different story (and luckily I wasn't driving). Of course the exhaustion didn't stop my mouth from going a mile a minute all the way home....poor Mike.

Yesterday was a bit of the same...concessions at the dome but this time for the state high school championships. I was shown some mercy and given 2nd shift so didn't have to be in until 2pm. Even though I was awake early, I was moving VERY slowly and was a bit glad that I didn't have to be back out the door just yet. Although I admit...I like the setup part of concessions better then I like cleanup. By the time it's time to crunch figures at the end, my brain is a bit mushy.

UGH! Now it is Monday TUESDAY morning and my context (yesterday, today, etc) is all off...oh well not fixing it. Monday just flew by. I tried to get things done for the bazaar which is THIS Saturday but didn't manage to get anything accomplished.

I never got around to talking about Sunday. I went to the wake and a small service for Gwen. Although I know that she's in a much better place and finally out of a lifetime of physical pain. It's still hard to think that she won't be around anymore. I loved talking to her. She had amazing stories to tell of the places she's gone and lived, the things she's seen and experienced. She was an awesome lady and shining example.

Little side story here. As I was about to go out the door to Gwen's wake, Olivia yells out...Oh mom! Grandma called. Tom was in the kitchen and asked her...Which one? Olivia paused for a second, gave him a weird look and said...the one that's alive!?! He laughed and said, "DARN! I was hoping you'd say the other one. I could just see her calling and saying...GWEN IS HERE!" Gwen's DIL got a big kick out of that story and said it brought up a chuckle all day.

After the wake it was back home to pick up the kids and head to Michelle's work (had to pick her up anyways) for her Christmas party. It's in the backroom of their store with a nice buffet, a bouncy house set up and gifts for the kids 12 and under. We got there a little late and some of the food had already run out. While in line one of Michelle's bosses mentioned to another...you missed the chicken fingers. I was so tempted to say...It wasn't my family! We just got here and this is my first plate! But I didn't. I hate that feeling. Like everyone thinks you're taking more then you are or deserve because there's so many of you. The eyes, the whispers....it's a good thing it doesn't bother me....too much. lol