The HoliDAZE

And now it's time to share about the rest of the Thanksgiving break!

On Wednesday, we started off with hitting a few of the early sales. I had the best shopping luck I've had in a long time! I am very excited for the new clothes I've gotten, I needed them badly!

But because this particular blog is all about things that went awry this past weekend, I have this to throw in. Unbeknown to me, when I went to Target a few days earlier and bought a box of medicine, the lady that checked me out did not de-activate the sensor. So every single store that I walked in and out of, I set the alarm off. I could not figure out for the life of me what the heck would be setting it off. But then again, I had no idea they would put sensors INSIDE the boxes of medicines (and apparently the girl who checked me out had no idea either). But it was pretty embarrassing always setting the alarm off.

Unfortunately, some of the members of our party did not have such a great time shopping. But how cute they were!

For Thanksgiving I decided I would step up my level of help. I usually just help my sister-in-law with whatever she needs at the moment. But this year I signed on to make two dishes; the sweet potatoes and the deviled eggs.

The first thing I did when we got home from the grocery store was peel and cut the sweet potatoes. Then I looked at the recipe to see how it wanted me to cook them. I should've done that in the opposite order apparently. Because you weren't supposed to peel them for boiling, but rather, just bake them with skins on. So what it resulted in was sweet potatoes with never ending water gathering around them (it seriously did not matter how many times you tried to drain them). Opps. But no one complained, in fact they complimented me on the tasty potatoes. So in the end it turned out to be okay!

Making deviled eggs isn't a problem for me, I've done those before. My challenge with the eggs was peeling them. I had that pesky kind that wouldn't peel without taking half the egg along with it. Which in turn made my mom, sister-in-law and myself all argue (not yelling or anything) which was the best way to boil the egg so this wouldn't happen. After we had enough, we looked it up online (what did people do before google?) and found the best method for boiling was the closest to the method I used (none of us had it perfectly right, and maybe it was my stubborn headed ways that makes me think I was closest...haha). But the bottom line of what would've made egg peeling the easiest was using eggs that are about to expire. Who knew that one?

Right before we were going to bed on Wednesday night, Jennifer (my-sister-in-law) remembered that we were getting up too early the next morning for the 10K to have time to prepare the turkey, so we'd need to do it then. I've never done more than look at a raw turkey. But I know you have to take some bag out, that's about it. She had never prepared the turkey without her mom or my mom's help. So neither of us really knew what to do. After taking the bag out we debated for the longest time whether that was all we needed to do or not. Finally, I said, that "thing" (which would turn out to be the neck) does not look right and I think it should come out. After we re-read the cryptic (seriously, why were they so hard to understand?) instructions that came with the turkey, we realized it was supposed to come out. That would've been real embarrassing had we not figured that one out!

I've already blogged about everything that was worth blogging about from the actual Thanksgiving day. So next was on Friday we decided to prepare my brother's house for Christmas. So we went out to buy the tree and hang the lights they had bought at the end of last year on sale.

Buying the tree was easy enough. I would've thought hanging the lights would be too, but not so much. After my brother bought a staple gun and got on top of the roof to hang the lights, he realized the wood on his house was too hard to staple. So back to Home Depot we went. Then he found that his ladder was too short and the roof was too steep to get the middle section of the roof. So off to the neighbors to borrow a ladder. Then when we were almost done, the last half of the last string of lights went out (and after the first half was already in place starting from the very top point of the roof).

We had already found out earlier that day that the lights very easily came loose and if you just gave them a little push they would go back in and that section of the lights would work again. So we took turns getting up on the ladder and pushing on each individual light. Only to find that it did no good.

So we gave it a rest until Saturday. Then we took turns getting up on the ladder and switching out each light individually with a new light bulb.

Still no luck.

So on Sunday we came up with a fail proof plan. We'd go buy a new string but before we took the time to switch them out, we'd try replacing the fuse.

But Home Depot doesn't sell green icicle lights, theirs are white. So we went onto Lowe's, where they also only sell white ones. On to Walmart, where they do indeed sell green icicle lights!

Finally.

So he got on top of the roof again and replaced the fuses.

But there was no such luck. So off they came where I gave them a full examination and found the source of the problem. A wire had become unattached from the light. I guess that would do the trick.

Now, just to let you know, there were a few other Christmas light mishaps that went into the whole fiasco. I spared you the time it would take to go on about those. But by the end of it all, I don't know that I will ever be in the mood to hang lights again!

But they did look so nice once they were done!

At one point this weekend, we were all sitting down trying to eat some lunch. My nieces were crying and/or fighting (can't really remember which now). We were eating the same meal for the hundredth time. The last strand of Christmas lights still weren't working. And out of no where, my mom choked on her drink and ended up spitting it everywhere (sorry, kinda gross). So while she was outside coughing and getting herself back to normal, my brother was trying to save his brand new dining room set from being ruined from the water. And Jennifer and I were just sitting there motionless and looking very beat down. So I said, "man the holidays just aren't as fun as they used to be."

Which did have the effect of lifting our spirits because of how hard we laughed at the comment.

May the rest of all our HoliDAZE be bright!!!