Thanksgiving Mayhem

Our Thanksgiving holiday started out quietly and innocently enough, I never would have guessed that the evening would end up with my own screaming....

We decided just to have a quiet Thanksgiving at home this year (vs. taking both our small kids on the fairly long drive to Idaho) but still wanted to have the traditional meal with all the fixin's so we spent most the day cooking and eating, nothing unusual there. Our turkey took just a little longer to cook through than we had thought and we ended up eating at around 2 pm, which as it turns out, is right around Bree's normal nap time everyday. But, seeing as it was a special day, we were just sitting down to eat, and the fact that Brianna seemed to show no signs of being tired or cranky, we decided to let the nap go for one day - a decision that would soon be coming back to haunt us. Of course, at the time we had no way of knowing this and the day passed in a flurry of turkey, cranberry sauce and hangin' out on the couch.

Then it was time for dessert. We were invited over to some friends to bond over pie. And so,that evening off we headed with our two kiddos in tow, over to our new friends' house where they waited with their own two kids. (This was actually a bit confusing for Bree since its been getting darker earlier here. So as we were leaving she was going, "But it's dark out!") Anyways the four of us, our two pies and Jello dessert made it safely to their house. And things started out nicely enough, we all ate some dessert and the kids played and watched some TV. This was all well and good until someone suggested that it might be fun for the adults to play a board game. Sensing their parents might actually get to have more then a few minutes of adult interaction, all the children decided to attack us simultaneously with various strategized whining, crying, and general neediness. Suddenly, children who would, if allowed, sit and watch hours and hours of TV a day claim to have NO desire to watch it, in fact they HATE it and are just BORED. Some want to GO HOME and some think they're old enough to play our game and feel they are just being TREATED LIKE A BABY that they don't get to play (despite the fact that none of the kids were over the age of 5 and really can't play Cranium).

Despite these setbacks we adults persevered and finally, about 45 minutes later we got them all settled down and otherwise occupied, (finding ourselves in the odd position of trying to actually CONVINCE our own children that they DO want to watch TV). And we settled in to play the game....although the circus-y atmosphere continued. Inevitably there were interruptions, someone was hungry, someone needed help going potty, someone took someone else's toy and so forth. But the game continued with our teams trying to communicate with each other by trying to read each other's lips or shouting, the kids' loud and constant background noise making regular conversation impossible. (It's amazing just how much noise, how much talking in exuberant voices 3 small children and an infant can do!) We'd quickly roll the dice and impersonate a celebrity or try to draw a picture with our eyes closed in between changing diapers and nursing. If you have young kids, I know you know what I'm talking about...can't you just picture it? It was complete chaos. :)

Alas, our game ended abruptly when Bree just had enough and went into a major meltdown. With no nap, staying up later than normal, and the extra excitement we had pushed her a little too far and she just couldn't handle it anymore and everything made her cry, poor kid. She went into one of those modes where she's gonna be mad no matter what - if the TV's on she wants it off, when you turn if off she bawls that she wanted it on, when you turn it back on then she doesn't want THAT show but a different one....she wants you to hand her a game piece off the board, but not THAT color the other one, her socks are in a wad, you name it. Anyways, that signaled the end of our evening, we gave up and tried to pick up our messes, bundle up, grab the leftovers and hurry home to put our over-tired babies to bed. But, as is the nature of traveling with kids and pies in tow at the same time (both needed a lot of attention and take up arm space) we managed to forget something. As we settled into the car Travis says to me, "Hey, weren't you wearing a coat?" "Oh yeah," I said, "Let me just run inside and grab it." And so I did, and two minutes later I was back. I pulled open the car door and quickly slid into my seat.... only to find myself shrieking and jumping back out in about 2.5 seconds because I had the unpleasant experience of SITTING IN A DISH OF RASBERRY JELLO. (Which was apparently sitting in my seat because Trav had needed to put it down to turn around and talk to a still bawling Brianna at the time. Although, when I was getting back in Travis was looking right at me and didn't say anything, evidently having, in that 2 minute span, completely forgotten that such a thing as Jello was ever invented.) Well, you can imagine, upon feeling my rear settle into cold squishiness I leaped back out going "AAAAAGGGHHH!"

Naturally, in his extreme remorse over leaving the Jello in my seat Trav's reaction was to laugh hysterically and Brianna's was to bawl harder from the back seat which made Noah start in as well. And the situation was only made worse by the fact that our friend happened to be coming out of his house to take his dog on a late walk and witnessed the whole thing. Not seeing what happened his reaction to my scream was to run over and say, "What happened? Are you okay?" "I'm fine," I reassured him, "I just SAT in our Jello!" "Oh," he replied, taking in my now red and runny rear. "I see. Well, I bet this is the first time anybody can call you a Jello Butt!" he quipped. (Which I later decided to take as a compliment since, as I've said, I feel very comfortable with the size of my backside as the mother of two.) And a few minutes later we were finally headed for home, Brianna and Noah both sobbing away lustily in the back seat, Travis unable to stop himself from bouts of maniacal laughter and me, sitting on a plastic grocery bag, my feet elevated so as not to squish the leftover pie sitting in my foot space and alternately shooting accusing glances at my husband every few minutes and staring at my own butt impression within the sad remains of the raspberry Jello in my hands. Ultimately though, I ended up laughing about it just as much as Travis, it was either that or cry, and the situation was just so ludicrous I had to laugh. And oddly enough, for some reason, it seemed even more funny at the time that both the kids were in the back seat bawling their eyes out. And there we were, the kids wailing in back and both parents laughing like crazed hyenas in the front seat....what a sight we must have been if anyone were watching.

And that is the story of how, on Thanksgiving night, I ended up hopping around in the snow with blobs of red goo rapidly freezing onto my backside. Classic.

I can only hope your holiday was just as good! :)