Thanksgiving Weekend Continued

Just wanted to show you a picture of the pumpkin floral arrangement that Jeanne sent me for Thanksgiving. You can't tell, but the pumpkin is beaded---and I know just what I'm going to use it for next year---just wait and see!!

On to the rest of our weekend. On Friday, the ladies that do the outside of our house came. I like to be out of the house, so I took myself to Hobby Lobby, an antique mall and then to meet Steph and Mindy for lunch---they were both working. We had dinner with Jack, Connie, Nancy and Bill at Antonio's. I told them that the Italian dinner they would be having at our house this Friday would be better! Really, the food is great there.

Saturday, I hired the little girls to help me with the decorating. While they were there, I didn't think it was going so well. I kept having to go behind them and "tweak" everything. Butch said that was no big surprise. I'm just sooooo, I don't know what the word is....Anyway, it wasn't until after I took them home and came back that I realized what a huge help they really were. Just hauling all the stuff down was worth it. Butch left to meet up with Steph to get the real trees. That's how I really like it---time to myself to do the decorating (read that to mean---no football blaring from the tv---just me and my Christmas music). It turns out that with the pre-work the girls did, it only took me about an hour and a half to finish it up. Much easier and fun.

Now I realize what it is that I "hate" about the decorating---it's what it leads to. I have to wash and dry everything! I ended up taking everything out of my china cabinet and cleaning it all, plus the china cabinet itself. A lot of work, but once I get started I can't stop. I love everything so sparkly and clean. I still have my Waterford chandelier to do.

On Sunday, Butch and I had planned to go to Mindy's to help her "fluff" her tree. Before that, I had gotten up really early and worked in my office, paid bills, registered my Cricut cartridges, messed with pictures and cleared my desk. By 9:30 we decided to go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast before going to Mindy's. Her salivary glands must have kicked in because she called us when we were about half way there. We invited her along---she's not one to ever pass up food. She called back to say that we needed to pick her up as she'd left her car the night before and "cabbed it" home. We had to take her to get her car after breakfast. This was turning into a much longer process than we bargained for. As it turns out, Mindy's tree is a thin, 6.5 ft. pre-lit. I brought her box of ornaments from when she was a kid along with a few other things. It only took about an hour to get her set up. Butch watched the Titan's game.

From there, we went over to Steph's because I don't want her to feel like we do everything for Mindy! I helped her decorate her stairwell, the living room and dining room. She had just a little other stuff plus the tree when I left. By the time we got home, it was 3 p.m.---just about the whole day---and we still had our live tree to do. You can see Butch below stringing the lights. I pretty much stay out of his way. He prefers to do it himself. If I do help, he treats me like a little kid and moves every ornament I put on. I think he put on that Nike t-shirt to encourage himself to "just do it."

The rest of the pictures are just a few shots from around the house. Now I can sit back and enjoy the season. I've even set up a play date with my friends for next Monday.