Thanksgiving officially ended today. Mom, Dad, Laura, Thomas, and Ben were visiting with us for Thanksgiving weekend, and all are gone as of today. Mom and Dad arrived last Monday, however since I have pretty much no vacation time left I continued to go to work for the first half of the week. Wednesday was Missy's Thanksgiving feast at preschool, which I did not attend but Mom did with Beth; later on they visited with Alex's kindergarten class. And then...fortunately the kids were already home from school, but there was apparently a loud crack coming from the garage and then the door wouldn't go up. The garage door spring had broken in half. Dad and I got the door open and propped, but MAN that thing is heavier than it looks. Rather than pay through the nose to have someone come and fix it after hours or on a holiday or weekend, we just decided to leave the cars out and the door shut. So, that's what we did. Laura and Thomas and Ben arrived early Thursday. We had a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, and then put up and decorated the Christmas tree. The day after TG, we all dressed up and headed to Fort Wayne to have a family portrait done at Picture People. Mom wanted to have one done with Thomas and Ben in it, and the last one was just after Missy was born. Nobody else was really crazy about doing it at a mall the day after TG but it went well. The kids got to ride the carousel while we were there and everyone got in some last-minute shopping. We came home after lunch and everyone quickly wrapped presents, then we opened presents. I thought Alex was going to bust waiting until we did. The big haul: luggage for Beth and me, a Planet Heroes playset and a Cars computer game for Alex, and a Robo-Panda and Littlest Pet Shop stuff for Missy, Kung Fu Panda and Toy Story 2 DVDs, and lots of other toys, clothes, and games. Saturday, We all took the kids out to lunch at Mad Anthony's and then to Somethin' Funn. We would have preferred the old T'N'T but it's what we have now. Anyway, we first took the kids go-kart racing, which was fun, then helped them play skee-ball and such and accumulated tickets to cash in for cheap Chinese crap, which the kids love. After that, we picked up babysitters and left the kids at home while all the grownups went for dinner at Trio's, a very nice jazz restaurant in South Bend. We were planning on having dinner and then listening to the live music, but the music didn't start until 9 pm so we weren't there very long after it did start. But the food is superb, and the band seemed to be very good. Sunday, Laura and Thomas and Ben left. Yesterday, I was back to work, and afterwards Mom and Dad took us (plus the kids) out to see "Bolt." Today they headed home.