Giving Thanks, Tim and Jean-style

Tim and I have had such a fun Thanksgiving weekend so far! This year, as always, we have a lot to be thankful for -- mainly each other, but also our little guy on the way. Heavenly Father has given us a bounty of blessings, and it's wonderful to really ponder them on this holiday.

We kicked off our Thanksgiving break with a trip to Disneyland on Wednesday night. From the moment we entered the freeway, however, we knew made a BIG mistake. It was so packed!! For some reason, Tim was unaware that the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year, but he sure knows now. A drive that usually takes us 45 minutes took us TWO HOURS this time. And once we got there, we realized that everyone else was thinking the same thing we were, that they wanted to enjoy the night before Thanksgiving having some fun with the fam. So, it was absolutely packed. However, while we were really nervous at first (after parking on the roof of the garage, which we never do, and seieng the mega-lines at the tram, etc.), it ended up being a lot of fun, mainly because Disneyland is so well-designed and efficient that we never had to wait too long for rides. We also tried to choose our rides wisely (like skipping Space Mountain), and we ate dinner during the parade, instead of right afterwards. And because the park stayed open until midnight, we were able to get a lot of late-night rides in, thanks to the sleepy kids who motivated their parents to get going.

Disneyland is all decorated for Christmas now, and it's just beautiful. It even "snowed" at one point during the evening, where this music and sing-songy voice came on the loudspeaker, and then these jets started puffing fluffy fake snow into the air near the castle. How cool!!! Here are some photos:

A nice fellow took our picture in front of the "C" of "California," which is right in front of the entrance to California Adventure. We usually start our Disney fun with a trip to the Mission Tortilla Factory, where you watch a two-minute video about tortillas (care of the Mission corporation), and then visit the mini-factory and get a free tortilla, hot out of the oven.

Dancing reindeer during the new Christmas-themed parade.

"SANTAAAAA!!!! I know him!! I KNOW HIM!!!!" -Buddy the Elf

The purty castle with a snowy makeover.

We've been really excited for Thanksgiving this year. After 4.5 years of marriage (and four years of mooching off other people's Thanksgivings), we finally decided that we would brave the turkey and enjoy a homemade Thanksgiving meal right here. We love spending Thanksgiving with our friends and families, but we also love the joyous bounty of leftovers that a home-cooked meal affords. So, we were "up 'n at 'em" at 7:30 in the morning, preparing the turkey and getting it into the oven:

Tim washed the bird and cleaned out its inerds.

Stuffing the bird with my mom's secret recipe (two boxes of Stove Top mixed with one box of Jiffy cornbread). Delish!

We're so proud of ourselves!!

The turkey roasted for five hours, but it smelled so good in the kitchen that Tim kept sneaking in and peeking at it in the oven.

Yum yum yum!

Later on in the morning, it was time to prepare the fixin's! Tim and I decided that since this was our first real Thanksgiving, we would make it as stress-free as possible and stick with the "Basic" version (canned vegetables, instant taters, brown 'n serve rolls, y'know).

This is my "don't take a picture yet - wait until I'm sprinkling on the marshmallows" face.

As you can see, I slaved for HOURS over those rolls!

Finally, the turkey was finished, and boy, did it smell divine. Check it out, hot out of the oven:

(I'm drooling again, just writing this account of that fine turkey.)

Then it was time to enjoy the bounteous bounty of this Thanksgiving goodness. Aside from the rolls, which I burned black on the bottoms (a tradition on my side of the family, which apparently I felt the need to uphold), everything was perfect. It was a lovely meal, and I loved sharing it with my lovey. (And with our little kicker, who also enjoyed the rush of blood sugar.)

We spent that afternoon enjoying the Hitchcock marathon on AMC -- we'd never seen Dial M for Murder or Rear Window in their entirety, so that was fun. And it was fun to have a Grace Kelly-themed afternoon. This was mixed with general lounging and occasional napping, with a break for pumpkin pie-eating that evening. Sooooo relaxing.

Now, it's a tradition of mine to go early bird shopping on Black Friday. Tim has never come before, although occasionally I would call him and ask him if we have a certain DVD already or not... things like that. I find it really fun and really exhilerating to nab the awesome deals that the good CEOs of the retail industry install in order to kick off the holiday shopping season. And a good deal is, as many of us know, priceless, so I love early-birding it on Black Friday.

This year, believe it or not, Tim said that he would come along. Hooray!!! Now I had two sets of arms to carry shiny, inexpensive products, not to mention another person to talk to while waiting in those ridiculously long opening lines, or those insanely slow check-out lines. We got up at 4:00 AM and were in line at Wal-Mart by 4:45, in anticipation of their 5:00 opening. I had warned Tim ahead of time that the line was going to be insane, and he finally believed me when we arrived. (I also told him "Do NOT get a shopping cart," which he also eventually realized is very important. So often the stores on Black Friday are just traffic jams of shopping carts.)

Overall, we made out well. We weren't in the market for any massive or particularly competitive items, so it wasn't a stressful morning. But we did get a bunch of DVDs and Christmas presents, along with a couple cheap-O baby toys for the little guy. We were especially thrilled when Target gave us baggies of free stuff (including a granola bar, animal crackers, and a mini-Bullseye stuffed animal). I thought stores didn't do things like that anymore, and I was impressed. Here are some photos:

This is us leaving the house in the morning. See all the blackness surrounding us? That's called 4:30 AM, which is this ungodly hour that comes after we go to bed but way before ANY of us should have to wake up.

In line at Wal-Mart. This is way, way, way behind the actual store. Oh, and my apologies to the nice stranger standing right in front of us, whose bald spot I unfortunately captured with regrettable accuracy.

"Holy cow, this line is insane!!!"

Checking out at Target. Another line and another wild experience.

We concluded our trips to Wal-Mart, Target, and Toys R Us with a visit to Mimi's Cafe, which, unbeknownst to us, has a location in Pasadena along a stretch of Huntington that we've apparently never, ever driven before. Ha! We were very excited. We fell in love with Mimi's breakfasts in Provo, and never knew that there was a closer location here than Anaheim.

Later I dropped Tim off and visited Kohl's on my own, which was probably even busier than Wal-Mart and Target. The tiny maternity section (all three racks of clothing) at Kohl's was 50 to 60 percent off that morning, and fortunately, it was just me and this other lady browsing the items. So, I didn't have to fight anyone for anything, unlike previous shoppers in the handbag section, who apparently waged war, according to the mess and carnage that was left behind by the time I arrived at 9:00. (I've never seen so many purses all over the floor.) I waited in line for probably 40 minutes before I could finally escape, and I was more than eager for some Thanksgiving leftovers and good napping by the time I got home. :-)

Anyway, in pregnancy news, I'm now only ONE day away from the official start of my third trimester. The home stretch at last! The really long, uncomfortable, achy home stretch. Yay? Something momentous happened on Thanksgiving, by the way. Tim gave me my first "You're gettin' big!" comment. Hahaha! I asked him to take a picture of my bare belly, and I think he realized that it's really starting to stick out now. Little Tadpole-Leonard now weighs about two pounds, so he's still going to be tripling or quadrupling that weight. Whee! Bring on the fat! (I'm sure the abundant Thanksgiving leftovers will help with that process.)

Happy Thanksgiving!