the long, long weekend recap

okay, so while my thanksgiving was lacking my own family, we had quite a nice celebration with the hub's side. mine had already made plans to gather at the folks' house down at the beach before i could get the word out to them that we were inviting one and all to our casa. oh, well.

the kid had spent the night at her BFF's house after their knott's berry farm extravaganza, so i was up nice and early to pick her up. we scooped up some yummy, greasy breakfast at mcdonald's and headed home to get the house ready for the party. she was actually going to her dad's at 4, so i hung out with her as much as i could, since i wouldn't get to see her again till this friday.

the hub's bro was over at the butt crack o'noon to get started on cooking dinner. we'd gone to the grocery store to buy all the goodies tuesday night (which was genius - the joint was empty, except for the dudes stocking all the shelves in anticipation of a plethora of last-minute shoppers the next day), so we were all set. luckily, the turkey had defrosted nicely and he prepared a fun mixture of salted water and herbs and things to make a brining mixture.

hub: "how long do we have to cook the turkey for?"
me: "um, like five hours or so."
hub: "cool. it's 1:00 and everyone will be here at 5, so they can have appetizers and we can serve at 6, then."

oy vey. talk about cutting it close. nothing like putting a 22-pound turkey in the oven at the last possible moment.

but as usual, he was right. grrrrrr. the turkey and all the side dishes (candied sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, and creamed corn, plus warm bread) were all ready at precisely 6:00, and we all sat down to a beautifully decorated table and the most delicious thanksgiving meal EVER. culinary school sure pays off.

we're not black friday shoppers. however, we have lots of fun watching the news reports about the crazy folks who CAMP OUT at places like best buy and the outlets at camarillo - starting on WEDNESDAY. so did they have turkey sandwiches while sitting on cold ass concrete, waiting to save a few bucks on electronics and other gift items? that's nuts.

instead, we finished up the last bit of cleaning around the house and then headed down to newport beach's fashion island. we were going to meet up with the hub's folks at their very favorite restaurant, the crab cooker, and it was nice to get out and away from the house for a little while. and no, we didn't buy a damn thing at fashion island - just lunch. it wasn't horrifically crowded, but i think we were still in denial about having to get started on christmas shopping. eek.

the hub is NOT a fan of crab cooker. it's a very casual restaurant (totally fine), reasonably priced (also fine), decent food (meh. barely decent. he doesn't get why they love this place so much), served on paper goods (and there goes the buzzer! my husband HATES paper goods, let alone at a restaurant). but i thought it was just fine and dandy. i munched on my crab cocktail, crab claw appetizer, and crab cakes quite happily. i like crab.

and then when we got home, i found that the mailman had finally brought the moby wrap that i'd ordered last week. my friend A and i were out shopping a few days ago, and this lady was walking around, as happy as can be, wearing this thing and keeping her baby snug as a bug in a rug. i know some of y'all are going to gasp, groan, roll eyes, vomit, or all of the above when you see what this thing is, but after a few days of using it, i don't give a shit what anybody says - it's fucking awesome. sure, i look pretty craptastic wearing it, but it lets me carry the bean around and still be able to do shit that requires both hands. seriously, i never knew that an 18-foot long strip of fabric would make me so stinking happy.

how lame is this - i don't even remember what we did on saturday. so i'm just skipping it like it never happened.

and yesterday, we finally dragged our asses out of bed at a decent hour and went to church. the hub got his hairs cut afterwards, we grabbed some del taco for lunch, and went home to change. we were SUPPOSED to meet my brother and his girlfriend at 3rd street promenade in SaMo, but somehow they decided that free tickets to the laker game sounded like more fun than hanging out with an old married couple and their kid. hmph. where the hell are your priorities, brotha?? ;)

so instead, the bean and i ended up taking a really, really long nap while the hub went through the remaining boxes in the garage. heh.

our long thanksgiving weekend was capped off with dinner at the newly opened corner bakery, during which we wrote out our list of christmas gift recipients and munched happily on warm comfort food.

and today, the hub went off to work while i took advantage of cyber monday and tackled some of that gift list. 7 down, 23 to go. and i'm sure that's not completely accurate - we'll be adding other names to the list, fo' sho'. yay for the holidays!