We did it.  We made it through.  Did you?  It was absolutely a whirlwind tour of family today.  My husband’s family lives about 72 miles away, and we were only about thirty minutes late after driving through Chicagoland traffic, filling up with gas, separately stopping for ice and everything!  My pumpkin pie cheescake was a big success (well, actually Paula Dean’s thankyouverymuch).  Although the inlaws put their stuffing inside the turkey which totally freaks me out, the meal was uneventful.  OK, AND one of the little doneness popper thingies didn’t pop on the turkey… I tried not to participate too much in the pre eating preparation lest I completely lose it.  I mean there’s no getting out of eating on Thanksgiving, no matter how creeped out I am by the food.  Honestly, those turkey popper things are so inaccurate, but at least it’s something…. if you won’t put a damned thermometer in the turkey, use the gifts you are given and cook it until the thing pops out.  Right???

Aaaaanyhow.  Normally we go to the inlaws and there we stay until like 10pm, but my husband is such a kind man, he actually spoke up tonight and said that we should get going at around 5:30pm so that we could make a stop and see my side of the family, too!  It was so sweet!  Of course it’s not like we just ran out the door at 5:30, but its the effort that matters, so when we were on the road at 6:30 I was thrilled that we might catch my parents before they left my cousin’s house, AND get to see my Aunt Joan.  A twofer.

My cousin’s house is so awesome.  Small, and loud, and welcoming and busy.  There is a constant stream of traffic coming and going, and there’s always candles, and music, and laughter.  And awesome conversation.  We didn’t announce that we were coming, so it was a surprise and we all had so much fun being together.  My kids each made a 2nd plate of their favorite Thanksgiving foods they had missed being out of town for Thanksgiving and it was so good.  Seriously my husband couldn’t have made my day any better today than that.

Oh wait, I forgot to mention that when I woke up this morning, he had created this:

Not sure what that might be?  It’s a hummingbird skull, silly.  Well… a rendition of one, in color.  Like to see it a bit closer?  You’ve got to see it a bit closer to really appreciate it.

Isn’t that pretty cool?  Of course he’s not happy with it.  Calls it “only my first try.”  I love it!  Did I mention to you that he had done this this morning… before I had even gotten out of bed?  Wait, you’ve got to see the colors, I just love the colors… have you heard how much I love colors?  I do.  I love colors.  This hummingbird skull is colorful.

Gosh, my night time photographs really don’t do it justice.  It’s all reds and blues and pinks and orange and yellow.  I don’t know, I think it’s fantastic.  He did it with pencil and marker.  He was going to do a watercolor, but since it’s “just a first try,” he didn’t want to get everything out.  BEFORE I EVEN GOT UP THIS MORNING!  I wish you could see me rolling my eyes and throwing my hands up in the air.  I love it and I’m going to make him frame it and hang it up.  First try or whatever, it’s officially mine.

OMG… I almost forgot the cuteness I had to endure this morning, when my daughter gave me a slip of paper that read:

Dear God,

Thank you for my family and friends, thank you for the food I eat.  I thank you for my pets and the love and respect my family gives me.

(erased amen)

From CC

And then she drew a picture of herself at the bottom with hearts for eyes.  OK?  I’m powerless against her bottomless well of adorability.