Christmas and the holidays

I love Christmas as much as any normal person, in fact, I can't wait to decorate my own place for it this year with all the stuff that I got 75% off on New Year's Day. I'm super excited for it. But I'm not rushing things. Thanksgiving is next Thursday. I have cinnamon rolls to make from scratch this Saturday. Thursday is the day to spend with family and count your blessings.

Friday, starts the Christmas season. Sometime over the weekend I'll put away my fall decorations, load my Christmas playlist back onto my iPod and put up my Christmas tree. I'll make and buy things for my family. But I'm not going to rush it. I'm going to enjoy every day because that is what life is about.

Happy Independence Day!

The holiday is over now. It was weird though with it being in the middle of the week. But for the first time in three years, I got to see the finale of the Bay City Fireworks Fest. I had to miss the first two nights because of work, but that's ok because I saw them as I was driving to work. And nothing really beats crowding onto a big hill with 50,000-100,000 other people and actually feeling the fireworks launch for 45 minutes. It's absolutely amazing. The fireworks are so big that they take up the entire sky and it shakes you when they explode. There were times when fireworks were getting shot off from both sides of the river and sometimes they were shooting off so many fireworks at once that there were random fireballs in the sky. It was amazing. I love living in Bay City because the fireworks rock. Unfortunately though, the wind was blowing all the smoke and ash over the crowd and at one point I ended up with some ash in my eye, but so did Liz and her mom. And the really cool part was when one of the fireworks exploded a little low and some hot ash hit the beer tent, almost lighting it on fire.

There was also the most awful band that I've ever heard in the world playing in the beer tent (and being piped all over the park) before the fireworks. If you're ever somewhere where the band The Iconix is playing, save your eardrums the torture and leave.

That was Tuesday. I was supposed to go sailing with my aunt yesterday, but there were threats of thunderstorms so we didn't go, and instead mom and I went shopping for the clearance sales. We made out like bandits and had a good time. Then last night after a mini-bbq and went to Grandma P's house for the country club fireworks that we could barely see because the trees were getting too tall.

And now the holiday is over, so it's back to the grind.

Traditions

Ahhh the first snowfall was last night. So that means it's time for all the winter traditions. Last night's tradition, the first snowfall. Which means that EVERYONE forgets how to drive in the snow and there are car accidents all over. Eesh. And it was only flurries last night. Can't wait til the first heavy snow.[/sarcasm]

And a week from today is Thanksgiving. Which means that we're gonna have 17 or so people at our house to eat. And that's not counting my cousins who are coming for dessert later. So I'm off on Tuesday (I work every other day next week. Score!) and I'm going over to my grandma's house to make the cinnamon rolls that we always have with Thanksgiving dinner with her. I haven't seen her in a while and I like to bake, so it's a perfect thing.

Of course, being so commercialized, Christmas shopping is being pushed in the malls, since there's only 38 days til Christmas, so this Sunday my friends and I, and my mom and a bunch of her coworkers are going down to Auburn Hills to go shopping at Great Lakes Crossing. I haven't been there in forever and I can't wait. And I think that we'll be eating at Rainforest Cafe, which is even cooler. Can't wait for this shopping trip.

And the best part of this holiday season is....

I'm not stuck in retail!


And I'm actually gonna have someone special to share it with this year

Black Friday

Thanksgiving was fun, it was rather chaotic as we fed 18 people. We had our dining room table, 2 card tables and a high chair set up. Family meals are so much fun. All that time to cook (dad and I got up at 6:30am and made the stuffing and stuffed the turkey) and the food all disappears so fast. Chased the demon child from hell around the house a lot, but I actually got him to behave which was better than his mom could do. It was a fun day. Too bad that I had to go to bed at 10pm in order to be able to get up for work today.

Today was my first time ever working a Black Friday today and I didn't realize how many nuts really are out shopping at 5am. I got to the store at like 5:20 today and at both doors that I could see when I parked (out of the 5 leading into the store) there were crowds of people. It was chaos with the managers today, they couldn't find all the radios and then right away people had to have change because everyone was paying with big bills. Luckily I was in Girls 4-6X and plus, so it wasn't that bad until children's got busy later. Luckily most customers were nice, but it was still crazy. After I got back from lunch I got stuck on the registers because with all 4 registers running, the lines were still to the escalator and doorbusters ended in a half hour so we needed to get those people through the lines (even though the cash registers give you doorbuster prices for a half hour after the sale ends to get you through the line). It was nuts. I was freaking tired by the time that I got home and took a 2 hour nap. I'm still drained. Blech.

Things always happen for a reason

It's just been one of those weekends. You know, the ones where nothing ever happens like it's supposed to.

I was hoping that at least one of my friends would be able to make it up and hang out this weekend because Bay City is just such a cool place to be for the 4th. Well, none of them could but that must have happened for a reason. Thursday and Friday, I went down to the park with my family we watched the lil shows of fireworks, the 15 minute ones. Those were cool.

Then yesterday happened. Grandma called at 9am, Uncle Tom had been vomiting and in pain since 6am. They were on their way to Covenant Med Express. 11am comes around, they're sitting in Covenant's ER because Med Express doesn't have lab services on the weekend. The doctor's weren't sure what it was because he had groin pain. CT occurs around 3pm, the result: kidney stone! A nice 2mm one at that, which is small enough for him to pass, so they decide to send him home. Doc leaves the exam room and minutes later Uncle Tom starts puking again, this time it's the dye from CT scan. So they give him an anti-nausea shot straight into his IV (which it took the nursing staff 7 tries to start) and then some pain med that starts with a T and Dilauded (or however you spell it). Five minutes later, he's snoring. At that point they decided to keep him overnight in observation. This is at 4pm. A few resident's took their observations (one was on her first day of residency and was from India and went to med school in Texas, boy was she hard to understand). Now we got there around 1:30-2ish and figured that we'd be there for a few hours and they'd either send him home or admit him. Well, by 7pm, he still didn't have a bed. I was getting anxious because I wanted to get back home to see the fireworks because it was going to be the best show ever. By 8pm, he still didn't have a bed, I was bored as hell, and just couldn't stay there anymore because there was no sign of a bed any time soon. So I left mom there with grandma and uncle Tom and left for home. I got home and dad and I left for the fireworks (he didn't want me going down to the park on my own). Luckily we were able to get a decent parking spot at my neighbor's daughter's house since everyone and their brother goes to the Bay City fireworks.

Dad and I got settled in on the hill at about 9:30. At quarter to ten, two F-18 hornet's made their prep flyover. That was cool in itself. But at 10:01 they went back over the park, just 500 ft above the bridge and lit their afterburners before going vertical into the sky. Then we had an Army General read off the names of all fallen Michigan soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Then was the cool part. In less than 60 seconds they shot off 1,000 4-inch mortars into the sky. That kicked ass. Then started the rest of the 45 minute show. I swear it was like ROTK, you thought that it would be over 4 times before they ended it. For the grand finale they launched gold fireworks from both sides of the river and it formed an arch over the river. It looked SO cool. After the show was over Dad and I went over to the carnival side and bought 3 elephant ears and took those home so that mom could enjoy one too. She got back into town about 10 and watched the high fireworks from a church parking lot since she knew that she wouldn't get down into the park that late. Dad and I got home a little after 12, we hung out with the neighbors for a bit and let traffic clear some before we braved the roads.

This morning when dad woke me up for church I was so out of it that I didn't even know what day and time it was, I was just so tired still. I could barely stay awake through Mass. Got home from church and laid down for a bit before mom and I were going to head up to the hospital. We got ready to go around 1 and Uncle Tom called and said not to come up because he was being discharged (yay!). So I did a few things around the house and just relaxed. Mom had brought Uncle Tom's car home last night so around 3 we were going to leave for Saginaw and take it back home and see how he was doing at home. Well, that just wasn't meant to be. Grandma called a little after 3 and the internal medicine doc decided that uncle Tom couldn't go home because his blood pressure was still majorly high. So that changed our plans.

Mom and I rushed around Bay City and Saginaw and made him a care package with some of his favorite candy, a teddy bear, and a couple of mylar baloons. Got up to the hospital about 5ish and got him walking around some to help the stone pass easier. He ordered dinner around 6ish and so mom and I took grandma to go get something to eat. We got back to the hospital a little after 7 and uncle Tom had eaten but wasn't feeling quite so hot then so we walked up and down the hall some with him and tried to get him feeling better before we left at around 8:30.

And now, I'm just plain worn out. What a weekend...