A Long and Sick November...on to a WONDERFUL DECEMBER!

This is insanity. I cannot BELIEVE that I have not posted about THANKSGIVING. OR ANYTHING. IN 3 WEEKS. This is absolutely unacceptable, but in my defense, it has been a little on the crazy side around here. Seriously. You know that things are insane when I don't post about my all-time favorite holiday season!!

I have been sick. REALLY SICK. For seriously ALL of November. It all started again a little over a week before Thanksgiving. I came down with my second sinus infection in 2 weeks and immediately got laryngitis. If you know me at all, you know that is BAD. I cannot tolerate not being able to speak. It came on out of the blue as we were out at the Fort Worth Children's museum. All of a sudden, I couldn't yell out Colin's name. It was insane. I went to the doctor and started my 2nd round of antibiotics in a month. I was not happy about it, but did start to feel a tiny bit better right before Thanksgiving. Which brings me to:

THANKSGIVING! We spent this year at my parents house with my whole side of the family and we had a wonderful time. We all arrived the night before Thanksgiving and met for dinner at Bruno's, which is a hugely popular locally owned place. It was PACKED with people and took us about 9 years to eat. I think that every family in Tyler decided to eat there that night with all their families in tow. It felt good to be home and amazing to be at a giant table with all my family. The next day we woke up bright and early and started cooking. My mom cooked the turkey, her famous dressing and corn souffle and Meredith and I split up the rest of the sides, apps, and desserts. I spent the entire first half of the day cooking with my mom in our pj's while Colin and Jer watched the parades and played outside. In a major change this year, we decided to eat Thanksgiving dinner instead of lunch, which was PERFECT. We ate at 5pm and it gave us plenty of time to cook all day and not spend the entire day before prepping. It also gave us plenty of time to eat WAY TOO MANY appetizers and treats, but it was so worth it. :-) There was an INSANE amount of food. It was SO GOOD! I ate myself to death, which was glorious in so many ways. I made pecan pie for the first time and it was outstanding...thanks to an absolutely fantastic recipe from my girlfriend Pioneer Woman. My love for her knows no end. This pie was seriously unreal! We ate it into the night and drank wine and hung out and just spent time loving each other. It was awesome. Jer had to work on Saturday, so we had to cut the trip short and head home on Friday, which leads me to:

The weekend. I started to feel crappy again on Sunday. I didn't feel right and felt my throat starting to hurt again. This cannot be, I thought to myself. I put it out of my mind...nobody could seriously be sick again after 20, yes 20, days of antibiotics in a month. Monday morning we had a playdate with friends and I was not feeling super and then Monday night I started to feel really bad. Tuesday was horrible and Wednesday I finally went BACK to the doctor. I had actually spent the whole night before imagining that something was really wrong with me. I felt like I was dying and far sicker than I have felt in years. The doctor was very quick to notice that I had a major case of strep throat...my first time EVER. My doctor actually looked so sad when he verified the results with the swab test that I thought he was being a bit over dramatic...it turns out he was totally right to feel sorry for me. It was HORRIBLE. Strep throat can disappear for all eternity! I was knocked to the ground for no less than 4 days....as in, can't get out of bed, can't do anything at all, sick. My throat felt like battery acid was constantly running down it on top of feeling flu-ish and throwing up. AWESOME. Colin even stayed home on Thursday from school because I simply couldn't get him there. UGH! I missed our city tree lighting (my favorite thing ever), lots of Christmas themed events with my best friends, and then missed breakfast with Santa with Colin. I was pretty melancholy. My favorite time of year BY FAR is Thanksgiving and Christmas and I feel like I have been off my game and not my normal self all season. Which bring us to:

I FEEL BETTER! The super antibiotics did their job and I finally started to perk up a bit on Sunday and by Tuesday, I was a new person. I ran around like a mad woman while Colin was at school on Tuesday and must do the same tomorrow. I have SO MUCH to do in a very short amount of time. We have Jer's work party on Friday night, a party at our friends house on Saturday night, a special tea and dessert party to attend with friends on Sunday afternoon, Tuesday is Colin's big Christmas Show at school and then Thursday is the class pj party that involves a book exchange. AND I have to buy presents for his teachers. And then a Christmas playdate on Friday morning. All this in a week. I really shouldn't have written all of that down. I get easily overwhelmed. Have I mentioned that before?

Anyway, this was a rather dramatic post, but you know I am all about flair. ;-) I feel sad that I haven't posted much from my favorite time of year. There is so much more to post about...but I felt I should start with the big thing...me being sick all the dang time!

*I also wanted to add that I attended a memorial service tonight for a co-worker and friend who passed away from lung cancer this week. It was a wonderful service and it served to remind me to tell all of those around me that I love them and am thankful for them. Tonight, I feel lucky to be alive. And blessed.