Random Ramblings

WOW! Two years and two days since I last posted. Oops. I guess I've let life just run away with me. I'll try to do better, but no promises.

I'm currently trying to get my house ready for the Thanksgiving holiday and feast that we're hosting again this year. We've been hosting Thanksgiving for 14 or 15 years now. We've almost got it down to a science or art-form. My husband cooks an amazing turkey! One year, no carving required... the bird literally fell apart as we were pulling it out of the oven. Best. Turkey. Ever. He also makes pumpkin pie... from scratch!! I'm responsible for prep (cutting celery and onions for the stuffing), mashed potatoes, sweet potato dessert, and clean-up. He handles the turkey, the stuffing, and the pies. Some years, he's even done all of the grocery shopping.

I'm also trying to plan the Advent/Christmas season fun and activities for our family. It's so hard this year. We have our oldest, 21 years old, still living at home. The other four kids are 13 (she turns 14 four days before Christmas), 10 (he'll be 11 a little over two weeks before Christmas), 8 (she'll turn 9 about three weeks after Christmas), and 8 (he turned 8 the week before Halloween). They are all very different personalities and interests. About the only thing they all agree on is the fun of our Elf On The Shelf "Elfis". I'm planning for his return the day after Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Santa's Scout Elves, does anyone have any tried and true and non-messy things our elf can do? Places to hide that I haven't already thought of? I'm notorious for doing super well for the first 5 or 6 days... then I get spotty about it. I'm going to make an appointment in my calendar or an alarm on my phone to remind to get it done each night. Any other suggestions on how I can handle that little dilema? My biggest enemy this year is going to be my work schedule. I'm a substitute school bus driver, so I get up very, very early in the morning... which means I go to bed super early in the evening. I'm always up and dressed and ready to go in case my supervisor calls.