Give Thanks!

This Thanksgiving, we had many reasons to do so...

Surviving layoffs- So Ammon works at a place where he doesn't automatically get Thanksgiving and the day after off so he worked those days. As a family, we were planning to go to his work for our Thanksgiving meal because they have excellent chefs that make all the fixings. Well, the afternoon before (Wednesday), HR sent an email around uninviting the families. I think this falls on the heels of the layoffs they made on Monday. Five people were laid off including Ammon's supervisor. That was a total shock. Thankfully (let us count our many blessings), Ammon was not laid off. That makes 3 layoffs that he's averted in the nearly 2 years he's been there. Doesn't make us feel too secure, especially if they can lay you off the week of Thanksgiving! Needless to say, some of you know we have been checking into some other more stable and fulfilling options. We'll keep you posted.

No Thanksgiving?- Since the work option was out, I was kinda feeling bummed about having no Thanksgiving. After reading an email from my sister where she's hosting her husbands' family, I decided (at 11am Thanksgiving morning), to do Thanksgiving after all just for our family. I rummaged around in the deep freezer and found our turkey that Ammon's work had given us last year (they were handing them out this year too but, silly us, we didn't think we needed one because we were going there to eat). I set to thawing it out and figured we'd be ready to eat by 7pm. A little late but that was ok because Ammon worked a full day. Thankfully (see, I have lots of things to be thankful for), I had sweet potatoes, stuffing fixings, roll stuff and pie stuff on hand. I say 'stuff' because I made everything from scratch-- the stuffing, rolls, apple pie including crust and lemonade. Connor was a cute little helper helping me mix up the rolls, cut up the apples (he actually ate more than he cut up but who's counting...), and make the pie crust (which he loved eating the scraps from). I had Ammon carve the turkey and we ate just after 7pm. Here we are sitting down to eat. Connor insisted on being a dragon...for Thanksgiving. He's always insisting on being some character. He usually says "I want to be ____ for Halloween" but this time he decided to dress up for Thanksgiving. Cute.Fun with the fam- Black Friday..."smells like Teen Spirit?!" Ammon says I look like Kurt Cobain here. Kinda do. This is what my hair looked like after my boys "attacked" me with a staticy fleece blanket that they rubbed on my head. They kept doing it and cracking up. Sticking my tongue out showed what I thought of that!

Good husband and father- My boys camped out again this weekend. This has become a weekend tradition. Ammon pulls the tent and air mattress out after work at the end of the week and they have a campout all weekend. Connor just loves it. He'd do it every night if he could. Ammon just allows it on the weekend when he doesn't need to get a good night's sleep for work. I slept out once but it was just too cold for me (and a bit uncomfortable--I mean, why sleep in a tent when you have a nice warm bed?). Ammon says he's willing to do this since Connor loves it so much and he'll only be small wanting to do stuff like this for so long. I just love Ammon for this. He's such a good dad. :)

New Appliances- Our last event of the weekend- buying new appliances! I'm actually kindof excited about this. For awhile now we've known our appliances were crap but we put up with them until they've really started to fail lately. The fridge and freezer don't keep things cold enough anymore (spoiling food in fridge, thawed food and ice in the freezer), the stovetop has sparked on me and caught fire once (yeah, a bit scary- makes us afraid the house will burn down), the dishwasher usually doesn't get things very clean and the microwave is an ancient beast (wood grain, it doesn't always work and the light's out). We decided to take advantage of the Black Friday sales and go get the whole set. We were able to get a pretty good deal so we're happy. Now I want to redo the whole kitchen... Ammon said "I was afraid of that."