Thanksgiving this year comes late in the month, which means that this is a year that there are only 3 weeks in between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break! Beth and I had originally had plans to go to Laura & Thomas' with the whole family for Thanksgiving, but Natalie wasn't going to go because she couldn't bring Churro, Beth didn't want to leave Natalie alone again for Thanksgiving, and then Alex couldn't get time off work for the trip, so it went from "we're all going" to "Alex, Missy and I are going" to "We're not going." At least I was able to cancel in advance, unlike a few years ago. In the end though, it was just as well we didn't go anywhere because the weather got pretty ugly this week. Heavy snow across the country. Actual lake effect snow, blowing further south than it usually does. Missy got home fine on Wednesday, but shortly afterwards the snow started in earnest. I actually used the snowblower Beth got me a couple years ago, more than once during the snowstorm. So anyway, glad to have stayed home.

Thanksgiving itself was low key. Beth got a giant turkey a couple weeks ago, but in the end she decided she didn't want to make it and we would have it for Christmas instead. As usual, she made a list of a million or so side dishes she wanted to make, and I had to remind her a coupe times "It's just us." But Mary Jane also came over, and Jacob (Nat's boyfriend) did for dinner as well (I think he had 2 dinners to eat on Thursday). MJ brought the sweet potatoes, and Beth made the green bean casserole, brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, and instead of the turkey, a crock pot chicken. In the end, everyone was saying that they filled up so much on side dishes that they didn't have any room for the chicken...which made us wonder why we even have the bird at all. I think from now on, holiday dishes around here are going to be bird-free. Side dishes only, since the bird is really everyone's least favorite part, and it takes the most effort. So why do it? 

Beth and I finally got around to shopping for a new microwave this week. It will be nice to have the old one over the stove gone and a working model in it's place. 

Today Missy and I drove her back to school. She was really nervous about driving back with the roads as bad as they've been for the past several days, so I drove back with her. I couldn't drive for her since, you know, I need to get home again and she needs the van, so we convoyed there. We went the usual way and the roads were fine. Things were clear all the way to FW so I almost called her and told her I was just going to go back home and she'd be fine the rest of the way, but it was also pretty windy so I stayed with her all the way there. Good thing too because she was stressing about how windy it was and the van was getting blown around a bit, so she was still really nervous. So I stayed with her all the way there, helped her unload her stuff, and then headed back home. No problems all the way there and back.