Ho! Ho! Ho! and Away We Go!

Well, Thanksgiving came and went in a whirlwind of chaotic jubilation this year! Mom flew in the weekend before and it seemed as though we never stopped to take a breath from the minute I picked her up at the airport. We ran our little legs off shopping and sightseeing, getting the house ready and preparing food that whole week. Every evening it was well after midnight before we fell into our beds and every morning we were up with the roosters crowing. No rest for the wicked, I guess.

Not that we stood any chance of sleeping in even if we'd wanted to, with Hubby out deer hunting at the crack of dawn every morning! He got an eight-point buck his first day out and brought it home to pose for pictures. The poor thing had it's tongue lolling out the side of its mouth and Sid was holding up it's head, grinning from ear to ear. The proud and mighty hunter! He got another buck Thanksgiving morning, much to our dismay. No sooner had he got the first one all cut up and packed away in the freezer and here he comes pulling another one into the yard while Mom and I are frantically slaving away in the kitchen trying to get veggies cut up, making the dressing and getting the bird ready for the oven. And then he had the nerve to bring in freshly cut venison tenderloin for us to fry up for his breakfast! Yuck! As if we had time for that! Men!

Dinner was a success and even our two desserts turned out good, despite the fact that it was my first time to make either one and we had to tromp up the hill to borrow powdered sugar from my sweet friend and neighbor late the night before. It's a pain living so far from the nearest grocery store.

We had two days of stuffing our faces and visiting with family, playing trivia games and sitting out back by the fire and then it was time to pack up the truck and haul Mom back to Okie-homa.
I thought we'd never get everything crammed into that truck what with all the stuff she was taking back with her and all the bags of loot we'd bought while out shopping. And we couldn't forget our precious Tubby. We could never leave him behind!

The 12-hour drive went faster than we thought, especially with Sid at the wheel. That man has a lead foot if I ever saw one! Poor Mom was praying fervently in the back seat while I watched out for cops hiding on the sides of the interstate and at every on-ramp. We spent two days at Mom's doing honey-do projects for her around the house, visiting with family and taking Tubby to see my 96 year old Prampa. Prampa was tickled pink to finally meet our slobbery bundle of joy and I think Tubby was just as excited to meet him too. We took lots of pictures and made a framed collage of all the photos for Prampa's bedroom wall. It was hilarious because Prampa had had some teeth pulled the week before and so he and Tubby had matching snaggleteeth on their bottom jaws. So funny!

After hugs and kisses and a long, tearful goodbye to Mom on Monday, we headed back home to Tennessee. Tubs was such a trooper and didn't seem to mind the long ride at all, which surprised us both. We thought for sure he'd be having a fit cooped up in a car that long, but he was really good. We stopped at a casino right before we crossed out of Oklahoma and into Arkansas and actually won some gas money, which was fun. We weren't in there more than 20 minutes and came out with $160 of the Thlopthlocco Indian Tribe's hard-earned money. Still not sure how to pronounce it, but thank you Chief of the Thlopthlocco's!

The drive through Arkansas was pretty uneventful until we got within 35 miles of Memphis and the rain turned into a downright snowy blizzard! Totally caught us off guard and woke us right up. Who needs Starbucks when you've got a snow storm to keep you awake?! The next four hours we drove through snow all the way home. I had a death grip on the passenger side door the whole way and my right leg was so stiff from me ramming it into my imaginary brake pedal on my side of the truck. There were fingernail indentions in the vinyl on the door and I was praying a hedge of protection around us the whole way, alternately wishing I had an iron skillet to bonk my maniac lead-footed husband over the head with at the same time! He's a wonderful driver and all, and we did manage to make it home in one piece, but I'm sure I've got at least a dozen more gray hairs on my head than I had when we left!

I never was so glad to see our sweet little house on the hollow then I was that night. It was after midnight when we finally landed in our cloud of a bed. I was plum wore out and didn't even object when Tubby hopped up to lay beside us. In a matter of minutes, both my boys were snoring away and I soon followed. When did holidays get to be so stressful? And now it's almost Christmas. Bah Humbug!