This weekend has passed so quickly. After our rather disasterous trip to the park on Friday, thankfully things improved. Ella napped nearly all afternoon, but she didn't really wake up in an improved mood. The kids and I went to the Parade of Lights in downtown Yankton that evening. In the eight years we've lived in Yankton, we've never been to that. It's the kick off to the holiday season, I guess, and we get to see one or two or three Santas. The kids came away with quite the stash of candy canes (only Accalia likes), and we had free hot chocolate and marshmallows (not really necessary since it was in the 60s). Ella waved so, so hard at Santa. She was very excited, to say the least. The entire parade only lasted about 15 minutes, which confused the kids since they are used to hour plus parades, but they weren't too sad about returning home. Cory was delivering pizzas that night and didn't get home until close to midnight.

On Saturday, Cory had one appointment in the morning and then we took the kids to McDonalds. Cole had fun except for one small boy who was not particularly nice. Cole was very insulted when the boy called him a taco. It wasn't too hard to see where the boy's less than stellar social skills came from as we listened to him mom - extremely loud and extremely rude to that little boy. The first thing we heard her say when they arrived in the play land was a threat to spank, and it continued the entire time. It just makes you wonder why someone is so miserable and has to treat their child that way.

After lunch, we did our Thanksgiving meal shopping as well as additional groceries. We have everything except for the wine and a pumpkin pie. I'm not ashamed to say I'm too lazy to make a pie. I haven't done that since three years ago when Cole turned the oven to broil while I wasn't looking, which resulted in a very burnt pie. Cory delivered pizzas for about three hours that night, and the rest of the evening we all just sat around catching up on episodes of The Reaper. For whatever reason, all three kids really liked that show last night.

Everyone slept in this morning, and it wasn't long before Cory took Accalia and Cole to Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Mixed reviews from the bunch, but the movie going experience is usually enough to turn a so-so movie into fun for the kids. When Cory told the kids last night about going to the movie, Cole was pretty upset that I wasn't going along. He knows that Ella won't sit still for a movie, but the idea of me not being there wasn't a happy one. We talked more about it this morning when he was well rested, and he was fine with me not going along.

There hasn' been a lot of other stuff going on today. Ella fell asleep around 7 p.m. after going without a nap today. Cory is delivering pizzas until 9:15 or so, and that's about it. Tomorrow I have to tackle bathroom cleaning, and I can't forget to put the turkey in the refrigerator to start thawing.