It was a spectacular holiday for us. We had a low-key, small family affair here at home, made even more awesome by the attempted surprise visit from my sister. She and Scott weren’t able to pull the surprise off in the end, and I’m freaking grateful for that.

Because you know how when you get really pregnant and really tired and really lazy you just don’t give a shit what condition your house is in? You know how your bathroom could smell like a truck stop and your couch could be covered in dog drool and toddler snot and you just don’t care? You know how none of that matters to you because it’s just you and your husband and your kid who are going to see and live in it so what’s the big deal? Yeah. So the house was just. like. that. when my husband told me at 6:30 on Tuesday night that my sister would be in town in a few hours.

He watched my face for, what I would guess, was the look of joy and excitement he was expecting. Instead, I broke out into full pregnant lunacy mode and chided him for not telling me earlier so I could clean the house. “What? It’s clean. I cleaned it!” he claimed.

Let me just be clear that my husband “cleaned” by putting random assortments of items in various piles, stacked in places that don’t even make sense.  So the guy threw some toys in some toy bins and stacked the junk mail, some magazines, and receipts, topped with a baseball hat on the bar. That does not a clean house make.

So then I had to morph into Psychotic Wife Of Doom again and clean for 2 hours, all while yelling at him to CLEAN FASTER! And at one point he was super seriously close to agreeing with me that we should stop after 2 kids. The pregnancy psychosis, it is strong with me. (When I think about what I am most thankful for in life, my incredibly understanding and forgiving husband is always at the top of my list.)

Anyway, we got the house clean, my sister arrived, my marriage survived another day, and a fantastic Thanksgiving was had by all.

My lovely, beautiful little sister who helped me cook and craft and, in return (as seen here), got to sport some of my maternity jeans for Thanksgiving dinner.

We made a fantastic spread, including a brined turkey made with Martha’s cheesecloth soaked in butter and wine method, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin cheesecake, cranberry sauce, gravy and these…

Ever heard of green bean bundles? We hadn’t either until my dad met his ex-girlfriend. This was *her* recipe. And while she didn’t last (and has now been replaced with a totally awesome new wife), the bundles have remained, renewing my belief that everything happens for a reason, even dad’s ex-girlfriends.

I tweeted about them and so many people replied asking what they were that I thought I’d take a minute to show you how to make perfectly healthy veggies completely unhealthy and AWESOME with bacon and brown sugar.

So you need a bag of frozen WHOLE green beans, a package of bacon and some brown sugar. That’s it.

I cut the bacon in half. Then lay it on the cookie sheet and place 5 or so green beans in the middle. Like so…

Wrap the bacon around the beans, place seam side down, then top with brown sugar. Go ahead, be generous.

Then bake at 350 for 45ish minutes, depending on how done you like your bacon. We like our bacon pretty well done around here. Mmmm… wish I could dig into these with the rest of my leftovers, but they are the first to go every year.

The dinner was delicious, Kendall was adorable, Scott took 3rd in his age group at the local Turkey Trot while pushing a 38 lb toddler in a stroller, and I took full advantage of my sister by making her help me cook and craft this beauty…

It’s a DIY felt holiday wreath, made for less than $15! Love, love, love the way it looks on our front door. Tutorial coming this week, so stay tuned.

OH! And I almost forgot to mention we survived Black Friday shopping at 4 am with a 2 year old. Despite my husband getting pushed out of the way, and out of place in the line he waited in from 1 am by a mob of asshats at Target, missing out on the TV that should have been his, it was actually pretty fun. We snagged many a great deal and Kendall was arguably more pleasant to shop with at 4 in the morning than any other time I’ve taken him. It must have been all the holiday excitement… and the snacks… and the bribes.

And you?? How was it? Family drama? Turkeys on fire? Black Friday brawls? Spill it. Make me feel more normal.

Kendall is 2.5 and I’m 36.5 weeks pregnant. I wish I could say that gave me an advantage on Black Friday, but I don’t think people even noticed.

This is me demonstrating how thankful I am for devices that keep my screaming child contained while I attempt to run a 5k in the cold with over 30,000 other people.

Thankful for daddy transportation. It’s efficient and much better views than the stroller.

Thankful for interest in utensils, love for my cranberry sauce and for a mouth full of teeth and permission to eat any and all solids.

Just… thankful.

Kendall is nearly 19 months, and will someone just tell me how the hell that happened?