Thanksgiving, Christmas Tree found, Countdown Madness, and the $32 edamame

Thanksgiving was so much fun this year. We were so lucky to have family close and able to have it at our house this year. We are so grateful for those who traveled to be with us and it was so fun to have Matt's mom, dad, and grandma stay for the weekend. Greta did aerobics @ 7 a.m. so I woke up for that and then I had to run to Wal-Mart to pick up a few last-minute things. (I made sure to thank the people working there too..) When I returned home JoAnn was already in the kitchen working on the fixings for dinner. We had fun cooking and literally cooked until 4 p.m. I guess that is just the nature of the holiday and it seems like it wouldn't be the same if you weren't in the kitchen all day! I was really ambitious (and actually followed through on my ambitions) and made some placemats, place cards, and napkin ring holders. I put cleaning assignments, bingo cards, and a word search on the back of the laminated placemats for some after-dinner fun. We had a great time!

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It has been a tradition to go and cut down Christmas tress in the past but this year the day to pick up the permits slipped by us and we unfortunately were not able to get one. I have been searching KSL.com for a someone selling their's and the day after Thanksgiving I found "our tree." It is a 9-foot fake tree with 1500 lights on it and it took about 30 minutes to set up and no stringing the lights (my least favorite part, although Matt has done it in the past). I really miss the "Christmas Tree Smell" but not pine needles all over my house, saggy branches, and bare spots. I guess I will just have to buy the Christmas Pine scent for my candle warmer! We decorated our tree for FHE on Monday and the boys had a lot of fun. I just love Christmas!

also made a magnetic "Boxed Christmas Countdown" to put on our fridge. The kids have loved this new tradition. In fact, they love it so much that they have been waking up at 6:30 a.m. running into the front room begging to open the box for the day. I usually give in and they are eating their small treats for an early breakfast. Isn't this was memories are made of though! :)

Last story for the day...Last night we were fortunate enough to go to the "Forgotten Carols" in SLC. We got a sitter for the kids and went to Pei Wei for dinner before. I ordered some noodles (of course) and edamame. They brought out the edamame first and we start munching on it. I had probably eaten about 5 or so and I "suirted" (for lack of a better term) out one of the soy beans and propped on top of it was a little caterpillar (not exactly sure what it was but something that definitely used to be alive). First I almost passed out and then I almost lost it. Matt showed it to our waitress and asks, "Is this supposed to be in her." She looks at it and says, "Uh, no. I will tell my manager." Then asks me, "Do you want some more?" Hmm...let me think about that for a seconds...NO!!! After we had finished the rest of our food (which was bug-free) we asked our waitress to just give us a refund for the edamame. When all was said and done, the manager actually ended up comping our entire $32 meal. It was pretty disgusting, and not really their fault that this little bugger was hiding in my edamame, but it was great of them to do that nonetheless. The Forgotten Carols were really fun to see and thanks again Dustin and Amy for the suggestion! Happy Holidays!