Thanksgiving, Christmas Decor

On Sunday Ben gave a talk in sacrament- I think maybe it was his first talk? He did a really good job reading at a normal speed and made everyone laugh with his joke "it doesn't really taste good but it's yummy". He tied it in by saying that was how he tried to show gratitude even though he didn't like the food. He got lots of compliments. Later, after church, we attended Jake's missionary farewell party (he was in our seminary class). His mom is an excellent baker and the treats were amazing. I chatted with a few people but I was glad Caroline was feeling better and was there. She was my main buddy until she had to leave for choir and then I had no one left to talk to. I wanted to go but Tyler had to talk to someone so I had some awkward waiting time. I hate parties.

Tuesday morning in seminary I got told by my liberal student that I should always use "they" if I don't know someone's gender (I called someone's dog an "it" because I didn't know its gender and that was apparently offensive). I made the mistake of responding that that is hard for me because I was taught in teacher school that "they" is used for more than one person. She then had to tell me how Shakespeare used "they" to cover multiple genders and it has been used throughout history as such. Ugh. I feel like she always takes off on these tangents that are just not for seminary.

Later on Tuesday I took the younger 3 kids to the Henry Ford Museum (Steven had school but they didn't). The museum had some fun Disney costumes on display and they also had a huge Lego city up. The Lego City was awesome and the kids all wished they had thousands of Lego's so they could make one too. It was a good little outing. 

At the end of our outing I bought them all candy sticks as per tradition and then proceeded to drop Lucy's while she was in the bathroom. This was not the only thing I dropped and broke that day. After our museum visit I picked up my pottery that I had painted with my friends. When I got home I decided to take it into the basement to show Tyler and I dropped the top part of it on the basement floor. Didn't even get a good picture of it before I destroyed it. Ugh.

Wednesday I had a lazy morning (we had cancelled seminary for the upcoming holiday) and then I did some prep for Thanksgiving dinner- the rolls and a pumpkin cake (because that sounded better than pumpkin pie to me). I struggled to get the dough to rise for the rolls but that just seems to be my usual problem her in chilly Micigan. In the end they turned out alright but I never feel like they taste as good as his mom's rolls.

Thursday was Thanksgiving so the day consisted of cooking and dishes on repeat. Ben helped me make the custard for the banana pie and he helped make the sweet potatoe casserole. After that he was done but he made for good company in the kitchen while he lasted. He's getting better at being helpful and not a pain, lol. I was glad we did Thanksgiving on our own, it helped it not to be so stressful and I enjoyed it being on the quieter side. We had lots of food- turkey (made by Tyler), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, stuffing (not my fav), rolls and Tyler's Christmas juice (aka dragon blood). Then we had banana cream pie, pumpkin cake and oreo pie for dessert. We were all properly stuffed and I did not take one single picture. '

Friday was another lazy morning and then I spent the rest of the day decorating for Christmas. We ended up buying new Christmas trees because all of our trees had dead lights. Also, with the seminary room taking over our usual Christmas tree spot, we really needed a slimmer tree. I found the 4 foot trees for the kids on a Black Friday special so I am not sure how long they'll last. But Tyler and I splurged on a new Christmas tree for us, it has LED lighting so I am really hoping it lasts for a bit. I tried something new with the ribbon because the branches wouldn't work for the way I used to do it. Then I felt like I needed to make a ribbon bow to match my new ribbon technique. I think it turned out ok, hard to see in the pic, but the kids insisted it still needed a star on top...

Friday evening Tyler and I went to go see the first two episode of "The Chosen" in the theaters. It was nice to get out and they were uplifting as per usual. 

Saturday Steven had his driving lesson in the morning. While he was at it I took the girls to the mall, they were dying to go. Unfortunately Lucy is actually not much for window shopping like Penny is. Lucy wants to buy all the things and she also doesn't really have the patience to stand around and look at things she is not interested in. After the mall, when we picked up Steven, he was really upset. His instructor had reprimanded him for driving too slow and Steven does not do well with correction. He kept trying to blame the instructor saying that the instructor was wanting him to drive too fast. Driving with him is going to be super fun.