Hooray for a short week!

It's a three day work week for me this week! The center is closed on Turkey Day, I took Friday off and I don't work Saturdays, so I've got a four day weekend. Score!

Interestingly enough, the only day we aren't celebrating Thanksgiving is on Thursday. Somehow I convinced nearly all my siblings to travel to Kenton to my Mom's house for dinner on Friday and we'll have dinner at my Dad's on Saturday. Most of them have in-laws to visit in Gwinn or Marquette, so this works out best for everyone. I think Joe and I are going to get together with a couple of his brothers that can't get home to see their families.

I'm actually pretty glad we're not eating dinner anywhere special until Friday, as I'm not entirely certain how much I'll be able to chew. I'm having some dental work done on Wednesday...something like 3 crowns, a filling, and something else that sounds unpleasant. I'm going to be at the dentist for 2 and a half hours and she didn't seem to think I'd be very interested in chewing for a while. I'm also not very interested in paying the bill, thank you. Yikes.

This is the first year that Joe and I haven't gone to see his parents for Thanksgiving, mostly because we thought they were going to be in South Dakota. While I wish we could have planned things to see both of our families, I haven't actually been home for Thanksgiving in a couple years. I think we managed to make it to my Dad's last year, but definitely not my Mom's. Plus, I think my Mom is really pleased we're all going to her house. We'd thought about going downstate the weekend after Thanksgiving, but my Mom is getting married that Friday so we had to trash that idea.

And then there's Christmas. I'm trying to get my family to make some decisions about Christmas, but I'm not expecting much. We just nailed down Thanksgiving plans on Friday even though I've been emailing everyone for over a month. We're really still struggling to set traditions since my parents got divorced. We used to all get together on Christmas Eve for the day, people coming and going as needed, then everyone went home so Santa could come and if you were available you came for dinner on Christmas night. Now no one seems to know where to go or when. We usually get together with Dad on the Saturday before or the Saturday after, which works out great, but it seems a little different every year with my Mom. I'm the only one that has to drive more than half an hour to see my in-laws, so it's difficult to get my siblings and parents to have the foresight to plan stuff more than a week ahead of time.

I've decided that this year I'm not going to make the same cookies I always do, mostly because I don't actually like either kind very much. Thus, I'm shopping for recipes. Suggestions welcome!

Alright, off to work.