We Had A Quiet Thanksgiving......Thankgiving Recap.

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving holiday.  The girls have been off all week. I was NOT sure how that was going to go, because if you have been reading this blog, in the past, you know that holidays are not great here at Family of 4.  We have had our share of holidays where there was grieving, acting out, fits, tantrums, etc.  We would just count down the hours for the holidays to be over. 

Last year, our holidays were pretty good, and there were just a few issues here and there.  I thought, "well, I can certainly take that, it's an improvement over previous holidays."  This year, my mother was not with us, but I tried to downplay that and was able to get through the day with no crying.  I did not do very well this am, but it was short and brief and I just got through it, which is what I have been reading you have to do. But this am was the first time I had to send LGA to time out as she just would not listen, ignored me when I asked her to do something, put the dog's food on the living room floor (digging in their food bowls) so now the dogs think they must drag their food onto the carpet.  Ugh.  But she went to time out, did her time out and has turned it around.  I got straight to the point and told her if she didn't behave no movie today.  She turned it around.

On Wed before Thanksgiving I decided to go get my flu shot.  We weren't cooking and decided on a Marie Callendar's turkey breast, mashed potatoes (I hate making them but like to eat them) and pie.  I also got a very small 3lb ham because the girls really like it (Dave doesn't) and I don't mind it but prefer turkey.  It was nice to have both though.  So......decided to get my flu shot and when I found out (at Walgreens) that I had no co-pay, I decided to get the pneumonia shot as I was a preemie and colds settle heavily in my chest sometimes. 

A cute thing happened while getting the flu shot.  The pharmacist came out with the flu and pneumonia shots and the girls got visibly squirrely.  The pharmacist I am sure, is used to this, so he said, "who is next?"  They got even more squirrely, and I told him they'd had their flu shots already.  So then he said, "ok girls, you can hold your mom's hand if you want to."  Two girls immediately grabbed my hands and squeezed them.  They even said I should have an extra treat cause I had two shots!  LOL.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving day. I had the first ever (in my case) reaction to the flu shot.  Seriously I have NEVER had a reaction.  I have even had the pneumonia shot and flu shot 5 yrs ago (when I last had the two of them together as the pneumonia shot you only need to have once every 5 years) and did not have a reaction.  But this day I did. I had a mild version of the flu that I still feel (and my arm is sort of rashy at the injection site, also never had before) today, although not as bad as Thanksgiving day and the day after.  Dave worked all week, and had to be at work at 7, so I was up early to get my shower in and ready before he left.  So I was already tired.  I literally felt achy and my injection site hurt.  I just didn't feel like moving.  We all put sweats on and stayed in.  I got some of the small prep done and put out the stuff we'd need, and evidently took a 2 hr nap.  When I woke up Dave was heating up the turkey and made the glaze for the ham following the recipe I found and had laying on the table.  I helped him finish the rest of the meal and then we had a nice meal. I even did the dishes.  Poor LGA was hopped up hyper though and just physically could not sit still.  She tried but she just could not make it.  So bedtime followed and she did manage to crash an hour after bedtime.  But the thing I notice about this week off is she has been sleeping in till 7 or sometimes 8.  She was doing this last year but then this year with an early bus and summer, she was up at 6 sometimes before 6.  We will need to replace her black out curtains as they are pink and when the sun comes up it shines in on her room and it causes a pink glow.  Not the blackout that she needs so will need to go with a darker color.  I do believe it's time to update her room and get rid of the Disney princess theme as I think she's outgrowing it. She's had it for 3 1/2 yrs. She's growing up too.  We got rid of all the babydolls in her room last weekend.  :-(  Sigh.  My baby no longer wants to play with baby dolls.

Yesterday I felt pretty off and achy also.  We stayed in and the girls got to decorate their purple 2 inch Christmas trees. OH what fun they had.  I have no pictures as I am a slacker mom on photography lately. I have phone pics but have not figured out how to post them without them being thumbnail size.  They loved it. I put the lights on then let each girl decorate (thanks Target $1 decorations).  They had ornaments they'd made in school, they had cute little ornaments, etc.  They had a blast.  They wanted Daddy to see when he came home and couldn't wait for him to see their trees.  It was fun.  So far no one is messing with them either. I said during the day they could adjust ornaments, but once night time came it was bedtime and no playing with ornaments (which I wondered if LGA would do, since she's my OCD girl, but so far she has not touched her tree).  It was fun and while they wanted bigger trees I told them we'd see how they did this year and if all went well we'd maybe buy them larger trees (and they want pink, LOL).

I still feel achy (but each day better) today.  Wow, yuck, don't like flu reactions. It's messing me up.   Go away flu reaction.

SO I'd say that this holiday was a success, we laughed and joked at the table.  The meal was simple, as BGA likes it and she ate all of it (I made plain stove top and just added sauteed onion and celery and instead of water used chicken broth.  BGA hates stuffing and ate it all).  We had chocolate cream pie for dessert and that was a huge hit (my girls are not really pie eaters).  No one threw a fit or tantrum, it was great.  I hope it continues on for Christmas, however, Christmas is much more amped up, so I'm not going to hold out hope, but it was nice to have a good meal and no one got upset or threw a fit.  Come to think of it, Dave, Ariana and myself all had birthdays lately and they went well too.  I enjoyed having the girls home and they really as I said (hope I don't jinx myself for tomorrow!!!) behaved well all week long.  Today was the first time out all week.  And LGA turned it around. It's not always that way, but I am starting to see a connection (the school had a school wide program on behavior and what to do before you act, etc.) for LGA and that sometimes she can turn it around.  We have learned some coping skills and how to work with her to turn around her behavior and help her work through when she's upset, so I'm seeing some progress, which makes me happy.  It's still ongoing and it's still hard a lot of the time, but some progress is good.

Hope you all had wonderful holidays with your friends, family, or whoever you spent it with.  Thanksgiving 2012, was a nice, quiet one for us and other than really not feeling very well, it was a great holiday.  Who would ever have thought that we would get to this point and enjoy a holiday?  Nice.  :-)