Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tom is in the oven doing his thing, and now that mom has arrived, she has taken over the cooking. Apparently my brother and his girl are actualy going to make an appearance this year, so that'll be really nice and will make mom happy (mild family drama here too sweatdrop )

Many wishes for a wonderful day for all the Purkles, celebrating and not!

Our dinner went pretty well too... no drama what so ever *phew*

I thought my sister's whole family would be there but they weren't... I think her youngest showed up a while after but we left early because we had to get Sara her medicine. So it was my parents, my family (me, hubby, Angel and Sara) and my sister's family (her, her hubby, daughter and granddaughter) and an old friend of ours that we haven't seen in ages. He must have been there to be with my neice since he's still so much in love with her. But that's a different story whee Everyone was on their best behavior and my sister ACTUALLY talked to me eek Not much conversation wise but what she did say was respectful and polite. We all got stuffed! Sara ate very good... her favorite was the beans and mashed taters. 3nodding Angel didn't eat hardly anything... but that's nothing new neutral She'll pig out on the left over turkey for the next couple days so I'm not really worried. Mom made this buttermilk pie... O... M... G... that was soooo good. Me and my sister split it... we both took some home, although I may not even look at it again. xd All in all it was nice... mom was happy that she had both her girls there and everyone got along, I guess that's what matters most. Wasn't much area for everyone to sit but that turned out to not be a problem at all. 3nodding

well i'm glad that you all had good times!
family time at it's best is lovely, but when friction rears it's ugly head it can ruin everything, so pleased no familial blood was shed sweatdrop

so now are you all starting on the Christmas shopping marathon?

I'm sorry so many people have the possibilities of family dramas at holidays, but glad there wasn't a drama (that's been posted yet.) Butterfly, if you get claustrophobic around a lot of people, you'd have a hard time at the Portillos celebration with 36 people in a house, more than half of which are pint-sized and running around madly. xd I love it though. I love when we can all get together like that.

My thanksgiving at my mom's was unusually small this year, as it's the first year our hubbies can remember us NOT having some family or another over to join us. And I was almost too full to eat by the time we arrived (lunch at one family's, dinner at the other's!) and didn't really enjoy myself as much as usual at that one. The farmer's market fresh turkey my mom got was unusually dry, and I don't think it tasted any better than other turkey (although I've had fresh chicken that tastes completely different than frozen!) Jade is like Angel and won't TOUCH any dish that was there except the turkey, and she hardly ate that because it was so dry, so as soon as we got home, we hear "I'm hunnngrryyyyy!" which is sort of appalling to hear after 2 Thanksgiving meals and when I'm so stuffed I look 6 months pregnant!

Oh, and you know how we forgot to bring out the cranberry sauce last year, and so did Jaz? This year we remembered the cranberries, but I forgot to eat pumpkin pie! And I found out yesterday, my best friend Carrie did the same thing! surprised

Yesterday, on black friday, we spent ALL DAY helping my best friend Carrie and her family pack up their Budget rental truck and clean up their house because they're moving back to Washington State after only living a few doors down from me for a year! crying My back and legs are really sore from cleaning, and now they're off and driving 20 hours away!

Black Friday wasn't too bad. I had to work at Yankee Candle but not till 4, so I'm not going to complain too much. Not crazy busy, but busy enough so I wasn't bored.

People ARE crazy on black friday!!! We had my father-in-law and his new wife and her daughter visiting that day (but they're not crazy xd ). I had to go to town friday... and I honestly didn't even think about it being friday... much less black friday... but I had to go to town to the bank. I took my mother-in-law with me to kinda show her around where we live while we were out. Well... my mom followed me because she had some business at the bank too. So we decided to go to get it all done before the weekend. So we get out of the bank and we start to leave... we pull out of the parking lot... my parents stop as they were pulling away from their parking spot... so I stopped behind them to see if there was anything wrong. Well... this woman in this pickup pulls out knowing we're back there... and tries to go around us... which she had enough room even if she ran over the curb a little bit... she was in a TRUCK for goodness sake. Anyway... she backed up just short of backing into me... and tried to go through the empty parking spot... I think she had enough room there too... soo... she backs up again just short of me. She did this about 4 times... then all of a sudden she yells out of her truck... You mother******s, get the **** out of the ****ing way. She says this JUST as we put it in drive and let off the break moving. Then after we get around the corner of the lot, she screeches around the corner and stopped short of rearending me. Then when we get to where we pull out of the drive way she high tails it through the blockbuster parking lot beside the bank. So... I got a little upset but I kept my cool to not cause an accident. We get around the corner down the road and there she is again... pulling out of an intersection at a red light and takes the turn kinda wide... again... JUST short of hitting me. You'd think she would have calmed down by the time she got a mile from the bank... but NOOOO.

People are CRAZY during the holidays... I really try hard NOT to go out during this time of year... unless I really absolutely have to... especially the DAY AFTER!!!

yea we had plans to go out black friday cuz compUSA had a deal on a 5 or 6 mp digital camera for $50....but 4am came around soooooo early! we did make the sale at Walgreen tho and got a cute 6'5" pre-lit xmas tree for $20!

our thanksgiving was awesome! We made just enough food to have leftovers for a few days. none of my family came over. and the only family from Kevin's side that showed up was his Aunt Sue. we did have a couple friends over tho and sat and watched football all day long! went thru at least a 30 pack of beer lol. stuffed ourselves silly.

oh! and the white castle stuffing was a hit! there was absolutely none left over (which kinda sucked cuz stuffing's my favorite part)