I had a pretty nice Thanksgiving. I went up to my sister's in Omaha. I left Thursday morning and drove 3 hours to get there. The drive was much nicer in my car than it used to be in the Tracker. The cruise control works, there is less wind noise, and I don't get blown all over the road. Dinner was great--my brother-in-law smoked the turkey and my sister made some excellent side dishes. I think she went a little overboard on the marshmallows in the sweet potatoes. She also made pumpkin pie from real pumpkin with ice cream in it. It was very smooth.

Friday morning--not real early mind you--we went to Furniture Mart to see what specials they had. I ended up buying a toaster oven for $15. It normally runs about $40. My sister bought one as well. She bought a lot of stuff. I actually ended up buying a new dining room table. It is not an expensive one, but with the table fully extended it measures 54" x 54". I think the square table is kind of cool. I also got 4 chairs and a bench seat. I have some friends that come over every year and make a gingerbread house and open gifts--and they keep having kids. My current table only seats 4 comfortably and when having bee squeezing 3 adults and 2 kids around it. This year there will be an additional kid and their baby will bring it to 4 kids when she gets old enough to sit at the table. It doesn't get delivered for another week, but I am kind of excited.

I have been buying quite a few Christmas presents already. I already purchased and wrapped the gifts for my sister's kids and left them there when I went up for Thanksgiving. I have bought most of the gifts for my friend's family. I have half of my niece's family. I know what I want to get my nephew's family and then I have 2 nephews and 3 niece's left. I have the gift for the sister I am supposed to buy for this year. My parents are the hard ones. One of my other sister's husband suggested we paint Mom and Dad's house. They have a brick house, but the trim and the accents need to be painted. I had several of my sisters call me about it. Everyone is a little uneasy about it. I need to call my little brother and ask him what he thinks. He lives closer to them and has seen the house recently. My sister who lives in town with my parents said that the last time it was painted, they did not remove the gutters and so when the gutters came down the wood was basically bare. I am still not sure why they took the gutters down. Anyhow, they are my dilemma.

I am actually looking forward to Christmas this year. I need to book my flights, but I am going to my parents as usual, but instead of just the one sister being there, my sister in Georgia and her family should be there as well as my little brother. My baby sister and her family will be there on Christmas day. Since there will be 5 of us there, that is more than half. I am just not sure when my little brother's daughter will be there. She is spending a good bit of the holiday with her mother. It would be more exciting if more of my nephews and nieces could be there with their families, but the youngest nephew will be there and that will be a lot of fun.

The weather is getting cold and we even got a dusting of snow this evening. I had originally planned to drive the Tracker in weather like this, but I let a friend borrow it because he is having problems with his truck. I am just not sure that I would actually want to drive it. With the Tracker being so light, it gets blown all over the road in inclement weather. Also, the top is loose so there is a lot of wind noise and you actually get a draught. I just don't really want to drive my car in the salt, plus it has 4 wheel drive.

I need to get some work done. Things at work seem to be moving along as planned, but I have to keep on top of everything.