Wonderful World of Whitmans

Well, Thanksgiving is over and I finally have all our Christmas stuff up. I put up 3 trees this year! I have the big one in the living room with our ornaments. A western or cowboy one with all of our cowboy/western ornaments in the foyer. We have the kids tree upstairs with colored lights and all the homemade ornaments and all the ornaments the kids have made at school. They look really pretty. I kind of wondered why I was decorating and doing so much, and got to thinking. Almost every year I have moved right before Christmas. In 2004 we lived in Texas and it was our first year with a baby. In 2005 we had just moved to Calumet Farm into our second house in 6 months. In 2006 I had a 3 month old baby. In 2007 we had just moved into the big house we bought in Georgetown. In 2008 we had just moved into the house Hill n' Dale built us. So no wonder I have never done this much! I also bought lights and decorated some of the trees outside. We have a lot of little spruce type trees here so they are perfect for Christmastime. I have already boxed all the fall stuff back up and have transported most of it back to the storage building. Not bad for a weekend.

We still don't have the suburban back. I would hate to know how long it would take to fix one that was seriously damaged. I took it to the body shop on Thursday, November 12th. It is now November 29th. I went to pick it up last Wednesday and everything on the outside looked great! I had already had a round with the Enterprise rental people. I tried to get them to come to the body shop and pick the car up, to save time if I got there and there was a problem with the Suburban. They refused. I had to drive all the way out to their office then drive back through Lexington in 4 o'clock the day before Thanksgiving traffic. We get to the body shop, I get the keys, look the car over, get the car seats in, all seems good. The rental guy leaves with the Tahoe. I get in and start to put on my seat belt. They are still locked!!! The guy didn't' realize that they needed to be replaced! So by now it is almost 5 o'clock Wednesday night. He tells me he will try and have it finished on Friday. In my mind I think "Yeah, right!". I hurry and call Enterprise and ask if they can get a hold of the guy that just left because my car isn't finished after all. He was barely out of sight! They try calling him and (of course) he doesn't have his cell phone with him. So the kids and I wait in the car for him to drive all the way to the Enterprise office and then back to where we are. I then have to drive him back to the rental office!!! By the time I walked back into the door at home, it was 6:30pm. When we left, I just got the kids up from their nap and went to get my car. Thinking it would take an hour tops. We finally get home, the kids are starving because in addition to not getting a snack, it is now supper time. We didn't make it to church. Needless to say Wednesday was not my day!

It is now Sunday. I still have no suburban. Maybe tomorrow...
We have had this rental so long, we have driven to Knoxville for another football game. (UT vs. Vanderbilt) We then drove to West Tennessee to do our Thanksgiving with our families early. At least we weren't putting those miles on our car! The warranty is almost out on it so that is one plus to all this.

While we were in Tennessee I drove to Jackson to have lunch with my sister who is due to have a baby December 3rd. We went into a little shop that had some really cute stuff. I got the kids' teachers gifts there. I still need a little something else for them. I have also got to figure out what we are getting everyone else that we buy for. We are doing our Christmas early too. Plus Jeremy and I are leaving for Las Vegas on Saturday. Jeremy's grandparents will be coming to watch the kids for us. Madalynn will have school all that week. She will also have another Christmas program that we will be missing for the second year in a row. This is probably the last year that I will be going to AAEP. I can't keep missing this kind of stuff. I hope Vegas is fun, but when you don't drink or gamble I have to wonder how fun it can be. We do have tickets to the NFR which I am looking forward to. We have never been and Jeremy has splurged and got us some really good seats. So you might see us on TV during the roping on Monday night!

I have lots to do this week to get ready for our trip and get everything ready for the grandparents to be at our house. Plus I may have a new nephew just any day!!