A Wonderful Break

My nights have been full of vivid and varied dreams these days... some of which leave me breathless with terror, others taking me to new levels of fantastic scenerios. It's been wonderful. I have always loved dreaming beyond monotonous repeats of daily events. And the last few nights have really taken me places I don't usually go. I could really live without the nightmare parts though... it takes me forever to resolve myself to go back to sleep after some of them!

That is my night life -- then my days for the weekend were just as adventurous! Can it be true? An adventurous weekend!? Okay Saturday started way too early int he morning preparing the house for the big dinner.... scrub clean, vacuum, dust, pre-prepare as much of the dinner as possible and clean some more.... The good news is everyone pitched in. Even the boys made sense of their rooms!

4:30 rolled around and I was proud of what we had accomplished. MUCH cleaner and tidier too! And all the food was on schedule for a not-too-late turkey dinner. Guests all were punctual. My sister was able to make it with her family, my husband's sister brought her family and my in-laws rounded the group off to a full house of 15 for dinner. It wasn't really that bad -- sure it was LOUD, but everybody brought something to eat and thankfully all the cousins got along REALLY well!!!!

The menu included a giant turkey, gravy from the drippings, mashed potatoes, from-scratch stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, candied yams, brussels sprouts (my fave), freshly kernelled creamed corn, a yummy chick pea salad, a bright crisp waldorf salad and croissants. Our tradition is to have a cran/raspberry juice mixed with ginger ale as the dinner beverage. Mmmmmm! And home made apple pie and pumpkin pies for dessert (with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream topper). S-O F-U-L-L !

And at the end of the evening, the clean up didn't actually go too bad. The kitchen was clean again by 10pm. And my plan for limitting access to the toys worked out well. All 7 kids had a great time with the few things they had access to, making tidying easier than usual.

Sunday promised to be a beautiful day! So we decided to go for a ride. It's the first time I had been on my bike since we had been up to Fort St John! But all was well. I was nervous that I was too out of practice, but it came back quickly. The temperature was ideal, even though it had rained cats and dogs the night before and all the puddles were huge and lake-like. That was my downfall -- literally. I crashed my bike (for the second time ever) and ended up doing a swan dive in all my gear into one of those lake-like muddy bodies of water after riding too high up a tree root (in an attempt to get around). Of course there was an audience, another party of riders was waiting to cross on the other side. And of course my 9 year old had no problem crossing before me! (Cammy was really on his game that day-- I was very proud). T rushed in to my rescue and picked up my bike as I rubbed the mud out of my eyes and wrung out my gloves a bit. I rode the rest of the way out of there on my own. And the rest of the all-day ride went swimmingly (pun intended) with my soggy gear and bruised knees. We found 2 lakes that made being muddy all worthwhile (sorry the camera was safely at home). And we were home by 5!

While T unloaded and cleaned the bikes I whipped together a fast, hot dinner and then we all went to the pool (and hot tub!) to enjoy some relaxing water therapy.

Monday was quiet.... blissfully so.

So, how was your Thanksgiving Weekend?