Thanksgiving Plans

Here I am at 11:06 at night. Must record life today. Before falling fast asleep.

We all the know the quote, right? "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

Well, we (the Spears/Patenaude/Selin family) have been making a lot of plans lately. And meanwhile, life just keeps happening. Here is a snapshot of today:

• Intend to walk with the girls to the grocery store this morning in the beautiful, chilly weather. But oops! The double stroller is in the back of the van with Eric at work.
• Plan B: Eric's dad will be dropping by around noon to say hello on his way to Mankato for Thanksgiving. Maybe he'll be willing to babysit (and lend me his car) while I get groceries.
• 1:30 pm, Dad arrives, agrees to babysit in exchange for some lunch.
• I park .75 miles from the grocery store, as it is the day before Thanksgiving. I get out of the pimped out (old) El Dorado that is my ride.
• Charge through NYC in rush hour... I mean, the grocery store. I find everything I think I need, including a remarkable deal on Chicken breasts. I bought at least 30 lbs.!
• After Dad leaves and the girls are down for naps, I continue with my plan: Freezer Meals! Four pans of Mexican Meatloaf, 2 pans of Enchiladas, 2 pans of Hamburger/Rice hot dish. I put on my favorite new tunes, my red apron, and set to work. Pure bliss... productivity in the kitchen, no interruptions. I should be done in less than two hours, including dishes.
• After two hours, the disgusting truth hits me. The ridiculously expensive, throw away pans bought at the grocery store are in Dad's car. In Mankato. Grrrrr. So here I sit, with mountains of almost completed food covering my counter tops, and no pans to put it in. Much of this food is heading off to a couple I don't even know, so I'm not risking my own Pyrex. Alas, this will have to wait until 8:00 tonight.
• Have you noticed pomegranates in the grocery stores lately? Dinner tonight was Mexican Meatloaf, pomegranate, and oranges. Not exactly a traditional combination, but what the heck! It was all delicious!
• After dinner, I call my mom. Turns out she has made a few plans that went awry as well. The big kicker: her cozy little weekend with all the kiddos home is going up in smoke. One "kiddo" (and his new wife) are stuck in the hospital. Their first holiday since they moved away from home, too. We are the other kiddos, and we will be departing early from the festivities in order to attend Eric's Uncle's funeral. That's a bummer, all around.
• Mom is not happy, but I suggest we bring a yummy meal to Erin at the hospital tomorrow. Good idea... but maybe Dad wants to go see them too! And Eva insists on going; she loves the hospital and seeing Jon in that funky bed. So, Mom will call me back.
• She calls back, and somehow we start talking about my upcoming trip to the grocery store to get the dumb ol' throw away pans (again). She says that she's heading to the grocery store tomorrow. Uhh, no she's not. Cub Foods is NOT open on Thanksgiving. Next thing you know, Eric's making the stuffing for tomorrow and I'm heading to the store with Mom's list in hand.
• After returning from the grocery store, I talk to Mom again. She's confined to the church tonight, where she and Dad are sleeping over with a few homeless families. It dawns on me that perhaps she would like to see Erin and Jon tomorrow instead of spending the whole day cooking for the masses. I offer to come up early to babysit the turkey, etc. She starts to cry. She says that she'll talk to Dad and call me back. _______________________________________________________________
• Well, I've just checked my voice mail and the "final" decisions have been made. Jon might be released tomorrow (yippee!), Mom and Dad are going to slave over Thanksgiving dinner by themselves until we arrive whenever we please.
• I get a voice mail from Grandma saying that she forgot she was making pies, and started making stuffing. But our stuffing is all finished. That's ironed out now, and Grandma is putting frozen pies in the oven, I'm adding to the stuffing in the crock pot.
• We're not packed, as I had planned to be by now. That's OK though, because it turns out- life doesn't going according to plan!

Today I've gone from expecting to bring nothing but my family to Thanksgiving dinner to wondering if I might be preparing most of it myself, to somewhere in between. Believe it or not, this has been a mighty good day for me though. I think it was the two hours alone in the kitchen listening to rockin' music.

OK, here's one more thing I didn't plan. I woke up to a tree-cutter-man knocking on the door, asking if I knew who owned that car over there. I wasn't much help in that area, but we really enjoyed watching the biggest tree downing adventure of my life. 7 men with chainsaws, 3 BIG trucks, 1 Crane, 1 enormous tree. We had a front row seat!

I also didn't plan to make this fabulous magic wand. Mothers of little girls, all you need is leftover sparkly wrapping paper, a kabob skewer, scissors, cardboard, and some glue. I feel all crafty and good inside.
I always plan on little Hope being sweet and busy. She is really walking a lot lately. Grandpa Patenaude nicknamed her "Walkie-Talkie" today. It is fitting!
I didn't plan on looking like a moron in all my self portraits, but I guess I didn't check myself in the mirror today. The growing out of short hair is hard on a girl's chic image. Here I am, looking like I've cried for months over my onions, admiring the pile of ground meat on the kitchen scale. Looks like fun, huh?

Anyway, I might as well go to bed, since a whole new day is about to begin and who knows what kind of plans this day will hold!