Monday, December 1, 2008

Wow! It's been a long time since I blogged. A lot has been going on but of the most interest is this last week. I entertained about 21 guests through the week, cooked insane amounts of food, did lots of laundry, did some interior decorating, and will need at least a week to recover. BUT I loved every minute of it!!!!

The week began with welcoming my sister Debby and her family to my home for the first time since we moved out to Arizona. My parents also came out for the weekend. We had a great time relaxing and playing games. It was so nice to have the girls here to love on Caleigh, play superheroes with JoJo, and act goofy with Elijah and Markie. Caleigh absolutely fell in love with Deb and would cry every time she left the room. We took them to our favorite and ONLY sit down restaraunt in Buckeye, Cracker Barrel for Brunch on Sunday - YUMMY!! That evening we had a special dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday. Deb and I made a yummy pot roast nad Margaritas!! The Benis fam left on Monday evening and my folks left Tuesday afternoon. It all went too quickly but it was a wonderful time and I look forward to having them again - but next time for longer. So as of Tuesday, guest count - 6.




























Tuesday evening I got a call from my husband informing me that his cousin's car had broken down in Phoenix on his way home for Thanksgiving and needed a place to stay. So we picked up Austin and we spent the evening watching Ironman while awaiting the arrival of Marcus' brother Marlo and his wife Dolly. They arrived around 10:00 that evening. At about 11:00 pm I received a call from another of Marcus' cousins, Tanya, asking if she could crash on her way to Casa Grande where all of my husbands relatives were coming together for Thanksgiving. Why not? The more the merrier right? She even brought some friend for Lando, Thumper a toy poodle and Flower, a king charles spaniel. Wednesday 12am - guest count grows to 10 (12 if you count the dogs)

I awoke Wednesday morning having received 8 more guests who found any spot that they could to catch some Z's. More family on there way out to Casa Grande. My father and mother-in-law, Great Grandma Bratton, Aunt Geraldine, and bro and sis-in-law Aaron and Ashley. I cooked breakfast for all of the crew and they all spent the day at the house. I loved having them there and showing the family our home. All but Aaron headed out that evening to get their hotels for the rest of the holiday weekend. Wednesday guest count - 16






Thursday. Thanksgiving. No cooking for me. YEAH!!!! We drive out to Casa Grande to celebrate with Marcus' family and spend the day eating and laughing and taking pics.It was a whirlwind of driving, eating, and passing my little girl around to tons of people (she was a trooper and smiled and made everyone fall in love - was there any doubt?)












So..we are wrapping things up in Casa Grande and I get he call from my other sis Barb and her family. They are in Buckeye and on their way to the house. Yeah!! I load the kids up and we head home. We get there around 9:00 and we are so excited for them to be here!!!! We got a lot of fun and food and decorating done. Barb, who is my personal interior decorator, spent her time putting together and designing Caleigh's nursery and painting my family room a beautiful rust color. Now my house looks a lil more "me". We also managed to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for them on Saturday since they were on the road all day Thursday. Again, a wonderful time but too short and it was so hard to watch them go. Ending the week with a final guest count of...drum roll please - 22 (again...23 if you count the dogs)And I wouldn't change it if I could!!!!




























Okay....so who's next?