In Christmas denial....

So Thanksgiving has come & gone.  On the plus side, I was down almost a pound at weigh in tonight!  Pretty sure a lovely bout of food poisoning helped that along, tho.   Words of wisdom....if you EVER hear someone in another room say "I don't think this should have been left out on the counter over night - even in an "insulated" bag!"  It's wise to find out exactly WHAT was left out on the counter overnight!   

Needless to say, I found out. 

OK, we don't know exactly 100% for sure if the lil Smokey's sausages were the offending item, but it was the only thing that only Mom & I both ate right from the package.  Everyone ate them after they'd been reheated in the crockpot and were fine.  Yeah, Mom was sick, too. 

It wasn't pretty.  And I'm still - 5 days later - feeling some affects from that night.  I've been really selective with my food lately, lemme tell ya!

I took my Thanksgiving nutcrackers with me to dinner!

So Angel & I went to sister Laurie's house as planned Wednesday night & we went out to dinner with her, Mom & Linda.  Then back to her house for the longest game of Yahtzee ever and some Bailey's over coffee ice cubes.  

Laurie likes when we come over, since I'll go take care of the horses in the morning and she gets to sleep in. 

Jack's snazzy new hunter orange jacket made him perfectly visbile in the early light. 

 Even if you don't actually have food, I'll stare at you because your'e sitting at the table and some food *might* appear magically!!

Thursday - watching the parade from Detroit & the Lions lose, then dinner.  The usual yummy stuff.  And we draw names for Christmas since most everyone is there anyway.   Thursday overnight, I'd rather not think about.  It didn't hit me until 3:30am and luckily everyone except for Linda & I had gone home already so I didn't have to compete for the bathroom. 

The plan Friday was to take advantage of the nice day and go riding.  I thought I was dying all morning, but mid-afternoon I was feeling good enough to go for a ride.  Laurie's friend Sherry came over with her horse and we went on a good 2 1/2 hour ride. 

I started out on Kisses - the black & white mare.  But she'd had leg & foot problems most of the summer, so she was only ridden a very few times all year.  So she was feeling pretty ornery.  We spent more time going backwards or sideways, or doing mini-bucks.  After she went backwards off the road and across someone's lawn - Laurie told me to switch with her.  So I got to ride the new horse, Remington!  I know she wanted to ride Remi, since he is still new to her and she wants to get to know him better.  So instead she also got to see how he did with someone else, which was great!  The only thing he really freaked out at was a tractor coming towards us pulling a huge, smelly tanker of liquid manure.  But all 3 horses were in the ditch at that one!  But he was OK with cars and even a garbage truck coming up from behind and passing us & trash cans on the side of the road, etc. 

By the time we got back to Laurie's house, I was beat.  I haven't been on a horse that long in forever and that really hadn't been the best day to try it!  I thought I was going to have to ride into the barn and just roll off the saddle onto the hay bales.  Then Angel called me and asked if I'd go shopping with her when I got home.  It wasn't happening.  I had a hard time keeping my eyes uncrossed on the way home and between the white lines on the road!  So when I got home and she still wanted to go, I tried to take a layer of riding clothes off, but broke down & cried because I couldn't find one of my tennis shoes.  All I wanted to do is take a hot shower and crawl into bed.  So she went shopping without me.  And I was in bed by 9:30pm.

Saturday, I was pretty useless.  I sure didn't feel like eating!  Then Angel wanted Chinese food for dinner, but our usual place was closed so the family could go back home to China for a couple weeks.  So we went to the mall and walked around a little bit, then stopped at the Flaming Wok in the food court.  I was surprised that some egg drop soup & sesame chicken tasted so good and settled my stomach a lot! 

Sunday I got up and put the Christmas blowmolds out.  This shouldn't have taken long, but I'd never put the lights back in them after cleaning them up and switching them around when we put the Halloween guys away. So I had to test each light & reinstall it.  Then carry it to the front yard.  From there I figured out where to put them and place bricks in the bottoms.  Then had to run extension cords.  Blargh.  

Anyhoo.  We'll probably put a string of lights along the front of the house when Randy gets home and that'll be about all we do!  Our house isn't the most exciting shape for Christmas lights.  And I sure don't do as much as I do for Halloween!  But nobody else has blowmolds (at least not to the extent as me) so my display is still unique!     

I told Randy & Angel that I used up all my Christmas spirit putting the blowmolds out, so I decided that this is going to be our Christmas tree this year! 

We sure don't have to worry about any of the cats climbing it!  

I need to gather up all my Halloween hand towels from the laundry & dirty clothes & bathrooms & such and get them washed so I can use them to wrap up the last pieces of Halloween decor that is still out.  I have my Yankee Candle Boney Bunch guys staged on the kitchen table and the totes nearby, so I just need those towels and I'll finally be done!  Today I got the Christmas totes in the garage moved to the front so I'm ready (I guess) to bring some stuff in. Why am I not in the Christmas spirit???  I refuse to list to Christmas music yet.  I will always make fun of Laurie & Angel for watching their cheesy-ass Hallmark movies.  I am enjoying seeing people's lights so maybe the spirit is just dim for the moment.

Sigh.  Guess I better round up some laundry!  

Has the Christmas spirit gotten to you yet?