Our First Thanksgiving alone as a foursome. It was just wonderful. Of course I missed our family back home, but there's something about not driving to three different places and attempting to eat at all of them when there's good food to consume! Brent took care of our special guest, Mr. Butterball Turkey, and I did the sides.

The turkey came out DELICIOUS! It was very good and juicy. Not dry a bit!
Later in the evening Brent and the boys set up the Christmas Tree and we all put on some decorations.

I got a little knitting time in here and there over the 4 day weekend. We even went and visited Santa at the mall on Friday evening. It wasn't bad at all. Jacob went to the movies Friday with a friend from school, and Brent, Nathan and I braved K-mart. It really wasn't that bad, but I swear if Santa does not bring Nathan a Whac-a-mole game, Santa beware!!! The child will NOT be happy!
We went out to eat Friday night and Jacob worked on his list for Santa since we were going to the mall to see him. Nathan walked up to Santa and said, "Hey, Little Dude, I want a Whac-a-mole." And that was that!
(my scanner is not hooked up so I took a photo of the photo of Santa)
On Sunday, Nathan and I went to Laurin's annual Gingerbread House party. I didn't take my camera but I'm sure Laurin will post some pictures on her blog from the party. Nathan had a great time, as did I. Chris, Ericka and Donna (Chris's mom) were there too when I was there, so it was nice to spend time with them and Laurin and her hubby. Gina and her oldest son were there for a smidgen when I first got there, but they finished their Gingerbread SHIP and set sail for home. Thanks Laurin for letting us crash your party! I want to do it again next year now! :)

Happy Holidays!! Now go Elf yourself!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9592115621

Knitting right along....... one Christmas present finished.

yes.... ONE.... *sigh* Anyway I'm happy that it is done and I think (hope) it will be received with excitement from my niece.

I've still got the hoodie on the needles but I have a couple more Christmas knits I'd like to try and do.
Next is Fetching mitts for my grandmother. Hopefully I can finish them for Gina's Month of Mittens.

See you after Thanksgiving!! Have a wonderful holiday!

FO Friday!
Check it out!! After seeing Jackie's hat for her boy, I had to make one too because her son looked so dang happy with his!! It's the Skull hat for Mr. Jake. It turned out a weeeee bit to big and when he wears it I somehow think of Gilligan from Gilligan's Island. Odd...I know. But he likes it. He likes it a lot! He even SLEPT with it last night. How's that for making me feel good??? He's so awesome. As long as he's happy! I think I'm going to check my stash and make a black and pink one for my niece. Hopefully I can get it done for Christmas.

I didn't have enough of the dark blue yarn to finish the top of the hat off, so I just winged it and make a little band and voila this and voila that, a finished hat! (haha that sounded funny)

I'm still working on the Olive Branch Yoga Hoodie and loving how it's coming out. I'm working on one of the sleeves right now. I do have a question though....It says to knit until it's 18" inches long. Ok... 18" inches from where? the Underarm or the Shoulder?? Good thing is I can slide it on up to my shoulder and see how long it's getting. Maybe one day next week I'll put up an in progress pictures of the hoodie.

Thank goodness Brent comes home tonight.... :)
(I love my boys...they are just TOO fun sometimes!)

not much going on here, hubby is traveling... AGAIN... *sigh* only two days away so that's not too bad.... anyway
... move along to my etsy store. See if there are any holiday gifts for anyone or yourself. :)

When knitting goes bad.....
my forehead will forever have a groooove from that hat!! No...I didn't knit it. (whew!)
{{Sarah, quit laughing at me! see her snickering in the background}}

Ok...that's it.... NO ONE ELSE CAN LEAVE!!!! I have had enough of people leaving. Now on the plus side I've had some great times and great visits. Let me explain...
You all know that Sonya was here for about 4 days and a bit and then she went back home. It was a treat to have a visit from home.
THEN, and old friend that I have known since 6th grade shows up Tuesday for a visit! Her and her hubby were taking a little New England vacation before they went back down to CT for a wedding. Here's me and Meredith (I'm in the brown, Meredith is in the pretty colorful sweater). Meredith and I met in 6th grade at Noe Middle School. We were both in the band and both played the clarinet. We've been friends ever since. We went to the same high school too and still share a lot of the same friends (Tina, Sarah, Jenny, Anita, and the list goes on).

Then Brent goes out of town for a couple days for work. At least he's coming back soon!!
THEN, yeah, not finished yet, Marion and Frank decide that New England is getting just a tad too cold and they packed up their RV and headed south!! Nathan and I gave them a farewell wave from the street. Nathan and I got a treat of riding in the RV from the driveway to the street. Nathan was THRILLED!! He said "I want to go with them!" OH honey, I do too! Nathan has become pretty fond of Marion. Today he informed me, "Mommy, Marion is a good friend." I replied, "Yes, Nathan, she is!" Nathan knows good people when he meets them. Marion and Frank, have a safe trip and be careful!! We'll miss you and can't wait to see you all back here next summer!!
Here's Nathan sitting in the co-pilots chair, enjoying every minute of it!
Nathan standing in the door of the RV.

Let's have a little talk, shall we....
Sometimes people do Stupid things and it affects only them. Sometimes people do Stupid thing and it affects a few people. Sometimes people do INSANELY STUPID THINGS and it affects A LOT OF PEOPLE!! (click on link, read and watch video, then resume reading my blog!)


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Are ya back? OK.. now ......

So, Sonya came to visit right... and last night I had to get her to the airport. Traffic was super heavy and we (finally) got to the ramp to get on the expressway towards the airport and it was closed! So we make a BIG circle and head back towards where we came from and I try and find an alternate way to the airport. Now, I'm not THAT familiar with back roads in the city yet to find the quickest and easiest route to places when I'm in a HURRY! So, long story short, a less than 10 minute drive to the airport took 45 minutes!! We got to the airport, Sonya's plane was to leave in 25 minutes, and they wouldn't let her go. Said she had to be there 30 minutes before hand. Now...I did not KNOW I had to plan for someone making a weird decision to pull a gun on a Secret Service man. I just didn't think that far in advance. Actually, it NEVER CROSSED MY MIND!

SO.....we swing back around to the airport (I was smart and pulled in a gas station and waited for Sonya to call me to tell me whether or not she got on the plane, NOW I'M THINKING! ha!) We get Sonya back in the car and the first thing out of Nathan's mouth is, "Sonya, I told you to go home!" My children, so polite!
So Sonya and I plan for the ride in the morning, what time to get up and such for her to make a 6:10am flight. We mention Dunkin Donuts. Again, Nathan pipes in, "I told you to go home. I want Dunkin' Donuts!" Talk about selective hearing. :o)
I enjoyed having Sonya here over the weekend. We had a great time together. It was a treat to have a visitor from home here for a couple days and share her with my knitting friends here. I doubt her husband and children will EVER let her fly here again to see me unless we promise that Brent drives her to the airport instead of me. haha!!
OK and now some pictures of the weekend at Grandview. I'll hit the highlights and spare you the drama of Bob. If you wanna read more about Bob, you can read about him on Laurin's blog. :)
Here is Sonya and Lisa, Laurin's very cool friend. I just love this lady! She just that cool!
Here's me (can you see up my nose?) and Sarah
I started my first ever (full size) sweater! This is the Olive Yoga Hoodie from Yarn.com. A little funny about this. I was telling Melissa about this Sunday night when she came over to visit and I called it the Olive Yoga Garden Hoodie. OOPS! LOL Sound Familiar to anyone?? Gina?? tee hee

A picture of some of the group knitting before we left Sunday.
A BIG HUGE ***THANK YOU*** to the Blogless Sarah for driving and letting me and Sonya hitch a ride with her and the other gals! I enjoyed spending time with you gals!
Everyone send out good vibes to three of my fellow Manchvegans who had some illness and bad news fall upon them while they were there. These three gals are good friends and I want things to get better for them. You don't need to know their names, just know they're good people and need your thoughts and prayers.

"I told you to go home. I want to go to Dunkin' Dounuts."

Guess what happened.................................