Grandpa and Nana Nolen

After the long week in Houston for Thanksgiving, it was nice to come home.  It was even nicer that some of the family came back with us.

Grandpa and Nana Nolen and uncle Jonathan were all here for Black Friday and the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Last Thanksgiving Day, Nana Nolen and I headed out to do some shopping.  Many of the stores opened at nine and were surprisingly not busy.  By the time we left the outlet mall at midnight, though, the crowds were streaming in.  We called it shopping "Nine o'clock Nirvana" instead of "Midnight Madness."  We did meet up with Kara at midnight at the Wolf Ranch shopping center.  Kohl's, our intended destination was packed, so we walked around looking at the shoe store and then Bath and Body Works until closer to one when Kohl's was not quite so bad to walk around in.

I say "walk around in" because the lines were still ridiculous.  I had found a lovely dress and wrap that Nana Nolen wanted to get for me, but there was no way we were all waiting in a two hour line for two items of clothing, neither of which were on ridiculous sales.  I finally snapped to the idea of using the Kohl's kiosk and ten minutes later the items were bought and paid for and would be shipped to my house in time to wear them at The Nutcracker.

Back home, Nana and I went to bed and then the following morning, Friday, we were all up and ready to have more fun.  Nana and Grandpa wanted to take Sydney shopping for her birthday, so were went to Kaliescope Toys and Sydney picked out some more Schleich fairies.

 At home that evening, the guys cooked tamales (with a little bit of help from Sydney).

After the kids went to bed, Nana had mentioned a game that she and her family used to love and Jeremy figured out that she was talking about Aquire and my family also loves that game.  So we sat down for a couple of rounds.  I was able to give Nana a little Christmas surprise since I had picked up an extra copy of the game a while back thinking I would give it to someone and I just hadn't found the right person.

 

It was a very short visit, all in all.  The days in Houston were so busy and the time in Georgetown went by so fast, but we were so glad to see Grandpa and Nana again.  Grandpa and Jeremy and Uncle Jonathan got to do a lot of things together, including looking at cars and going out to the shooting range.

Nana and the kids and I had a Saturday to just hang out at the house, doing housework (that would be Nana's doing) and rearranging things (that would be me) to make room for the Christmas tree.  And of course, just playing with the kids as we both love to do.

What a wonderful visit.