Goodbye Thanksgiving - Hello Christmas

I discovered today that I would much rather eat Thanksgiving dinner than make it! We have had Thanksgiving alone before - but I think this was the worst one, due to my wonderful cooking.

First of all, the turkey wasn't thawed all the way so at 6 this morning when I am a walking zombie, my fingers were frozen trying to rip out the neck of this dumb turkey. It is a good thing it was almost all done thawing out. The packaging said to cook for 5 hours at 325*. I started it out at 400* for the first hour and a half and then turned it down. I also cooked it for a little over 6 hours. When we pulled it out we started cutting into it and the top was done - but when we got further down, Jeff and I were both saying, "um .... I don't think so!" Anyway, so we did eat the little bit of turkey that we knew for sure was done. We also had yams (Jeff's favorite), cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy and ... the potatoes didn't turn out either. I think they were a little too old. When I was mashing them (with a mixer) they started climbing up the mixers like bread dough does! That totally creeped me out and I threw those out immediately. Another thing I learned is when you are the cook, you are too tired to eat when it is done anyway! Hmmm - well, we will just have to look forward to next year!

Last year we started a tradition of putting up the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving dinner. Braxton was excited and it was fun to have him help so much. We wish we could get a real tree, but our apartment won't let us due to the fire hazards they cause. So, we just have to settle for a fake tree.

I sure hope your day was atleast as good as ours was. Whether the food was good or bad, we do have a lot to be thankful for.

Getting the Christmas tree out of the box

Posing with the top of the tree

Helping daddy get the pole put together

"oh that's so cute" (Braxton's own words when he saw this pic)

Ta-Da!

Sunday is a day of rest

Is it just me or do Sundays seem really long, yet short at the same time? Jeff and I are now in the nursery and I'm not so sure that being the Y.W.'s president was that bad, now. Holy Beans! There are a few kids that are just all over the place. We have so many kids, that they actually have split up the nursery into two groups. The older kids and the younger kids. We have the younger (so, of course, we don't see Braxton.) Anyway, in the younger groups there is probably 8 kids. I think Jeff and I are just lab mice doing an experiment to the bishopric. If they could only see us. We are running around constantly. NON-STOP! Some kid is standing on a chair, so I go over there to help him sit down - Jeff is grabbing a crayon from another kid saying, "yucky, you don't want to eat that." Than as we turn around we see the energetic one of the group climbing into the kitchen cupboards. Agggghhhhh! Are we sure that Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest?

So, when we usually get home from church it is about 4:30. I had dinner all prepared, it just needed to go into the oven for about 45 minutes. We turned on a favorite video for Braxton and before we knew it, he is out cold. Even though he is getting big - I still love to watch him sleep. He has always slept with his mouth open wide. It is so cute, drool and all. He just seems so precious when he is sleeping soundly

I think Jeff and I felt the way Braxton looks in this picture by the end of this Sabbath!.

That is just another day in our crazy Cragun life!

Sesame Street Live

We went to see "Sesame Street Live" today at the seagate center in downtown Toledo. It was actually really fun and we had a great time being together as a family. I'd have to say that the best part was just watching Braxton have fun and get into the show. I don't think he knew what to do at first - but he ended up having a great time.

posing for the camera just before we entered the arena

Braxton is VERY excited

watching the show with daddy

clapping along

yay! it's intermission

The Finale!

Caged!

Wow, do they ever have some crazy animals here in Ohio. Jeff and I walked into our living room this evening and an animal had somehow gotten into our apartment. It was fairly big and we didn't quite know what to do so we just did what first came to our minds. Throw our laundry basket over it! We quickly got the animal detained without too much force. After looking more closely we thought it was pretty cute and decided to keep it. What do you think of our wild animal?



No, really, Braxton just loves to put things on his head. He thinks it is really hilarious. We have pictures of him about a year ago with a different laundry basket on his head. This time it was especially funny because it caged him in perfectly. I wish I had thought of it earlier!