Where the Wild Things Are

Lara (squinting eye shut): Mom, look! My eye is gone!
Mom: Oh, no, what are you going to do?
Lara: Well, I am just going to get a new one.
Mom: And how will you do that? I don't think they have them at Wal-Mart.
Lara (opens eye): There! See? I got a new one.
Mom: How did you get it?
Lara: Mmmm, it just came. See, I pushed my nose, and boop! up came a new eye!
Oh, my, what a week!!
Here's a picture of Dustin and Lara going out on a date on Monday. They went out to eat at a Chinese place in Bloomington. I was a little jealous. Before the date, Lara got all dressed up, and even put on some make-up. ;)
On Tuesday, Dustin's family joined us for dinner. We saw it as our opportunity to spend some of the Thanksgiving holiday with them, and especially visit with Aunt Amber and Uncle John, who we only see a couple times a year. It was a nice evening, in which we talked, the girls got very hyper, and we critiqued the dancers on Dancing with the Stars. All seemed well until the early morning hours.

Claire woke up, as usual, but this time she wouldn't go back to bed. I spent a little time trying to calm her down, and put her back to bed within the hour. However, I then came down with the stomach flu. I sent Dustin a message at work and asked him to come home. At this point, the flu was debilitating, and it would have been very hard to take care of Claire if she woke up again (which, of course, she did not).

So I spent Wednesday in bed, while Dustin managed the girls on very little sleep. We survived, at least. I appreciate so much everything Dustin did in taking care of me and the girls, but it put him in bad spirits, which made me feel guilty for laying in bed all day. Dustin stayed home Wednesday night from work also, which he didn't like, because he was hoping to get holiday pay/overtime.

I was pretty certain we wouldn't be making it to my brother's house for Thanksgiving the following day, but when I woke up that morning, I was pleasantly surprised to be feeling so well. So Dustin got the turkey in the oven (the second he made that week!), the girls and I got ready, and off we went to our Thanksgiving meal in the grand town of Ludlow.

Click on people's faces in the photo to tag them.

My brother and his wife hosted Thanksgiving this year, as our mother wanted a break, and I felt it would be too crowded in my house. I love to host, but it is more important to me that my guests are comfortable on a holiday. But I am not so sure that David and Nikki will host again! :D They have been married for a year, have no children, own a comfortable, old farmhouse-style home, and know what it's like to go to the bathroom uninterrupted, have a spotless carpet, and pay $17 for one Christmas ornament. :D They were certainly not used to the hyper girls running up and down the stairs, spilling liquids and food about the house, and slamming the grand, antique door to the bathroom open and shut. Later my brother said, "Yeah, it's fine if we parcel you all out; when you're all together at once, you're a bit much." LOL! By the way, we were ALL there, my entire family. So that means 9 adults and 6 children under the age of 7. But we still had a really nice tome together. Family is such a blessing, and that is something you realize more and more as you get older, and especially when you create your own!

Today, we took it easy. I only cleaned what was necessary for our standard health, and us girls are just lounging about. Actually, I think this was a perfect day for Lara and Claire. It has been a very over-stimulating week, and I can tell Claire, at least, is in better spirits with the calm of today. She even ate her ENTIRE breakfast this morning (she was on a food strike for awhile)! However, I told the girls no movies today, since that has been our main strategy for getting through this entire week. We have just been playing a lot together and spending time together.
Lara drew a prayer to God recently, after telling me that she was getting tired of praying. I told Lara that is okay; God probably wishes we should stop talking all the time anyway, and just...listen. But the idea here, of course, is that our prayers should always take different forms.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! And, now, Happy Holidays!!