Thanksgiving and Reunions

This week has been a whirlwind of activity! Not only are things crazy working for our family business (Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday... and all the prep that goes into them) but we also had Thanksgiving and our friends visiting from North Carolina! Wow.

Thursday we all ate the yummy turkey and sides and then put up our gigantic tree (this sucker is 14 ft tall and took three men GRUNTING to get it in place). No one cared to decorate it after all the work of getting it inside, so it has sat bare for a few days. After Thanksgiving dinner Zak had to go to work at the bank and Amory, Chris and I braved the crowds at Walmart for a few toys. We sauntered over, arrived late and snagged up a few deals that weren't crazy... so we didn't have to deal with a lot of the CRAZIES- it wasn't bad. Friday Zak and I went to a few other stores before we got ready for our high school reunion.

Zak wasn't thrilled to go to the reunion at first- but after (many drinks and friends) he kept telling me how absolutely glad he was that I drug him along. 

Saturday our good friends came from North Carolina to visit and we spent all day hanging out. Catherine and her husband Mark have a 1 and a 1/2 year old daughter named Sophia- and Amory and her had a great time! First we ate at Cheesecake Factory and then went to Barnes  & Noble to let the kiddos play on the train table and with some books- following that we walked around the mall, did a bit of shopping and then let the girls play in the playground. Mark was at the Ohio State Vs. Michigan game all day, but he met us after for Chipotle (yum!) and then Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo.

I was amazed at the work that had to have gone into creating the Zoo Lights- wow- there were hundreds of thousands of lights... beautifully decorated, soaring to the tops of seemingly EVERY tree in the zoo, themed and even set to music. It was intense and the girls were awestruck. I think, had it been a bit warmer (it was a balmy 29 degrees) we would have enjoyed it more... but that would probably be the only way to improve it. We still got to see a lot of animals, the girls didn't fuss at all (despite not having any naps all day) and it was a lovely night with some really great friends we haven't seen in years (the last time we saw them was the week before Amory was born). 

Today was Sunday- we caught up on some errands, put lights (and Amory put candy canes on the lower branches) on the tree and just relaxed a bit. Tomorrow is my brother Chris's birthday so we went to dinner tonight at a Hibachi style Japanese restaurant & Amory got a huge kick out of watching the men cook the food in front of her.

I always make cakes for everyone's birthday. I asked Chris this week what his favorite cake was so that I could make him one... and he answered cheesecake. Seriously kid? I've  never made one, and all I've heard was how much of a challenge it is- oh well, tonight, I attempted it.

My mini-helper and I mixed, beat, battered and baked away. We ran out of white sugar half way through and had to use splenda, so we'll see how that tastes. Amory watched me crack and fold in an egg- so when my back was turned she dropped a whole one into the mixer while it was going and I had to dig out as many of the pieces as I could find- digging my hands through the goop bit by bit. Once I put it in the oven I followed directions to a T- but it came out looking pretty dark brown- I really hope that this thing turns out okay!

I'll follow up with next week's blog and let you know how it went :)