Life and Times of The Johnston family: Thanksgiving! And Black Friday.

Thursday morning the kids woke nice and early, so after breakfast we let them watch a couple Hallmark shows about Jingle the husky pup and Bell, which they really enjoyed since they have Jingle and Belle! Then it was time to start watching the parade! Elizabeth LOVED it, Devin enjoyed parts of it but he played as well. The highlight was as it always is seeing Santa at the end of the parade! After the parade we noticed Devin's voice was getting rough and starting go away, so we called the only sibling of Tony's who was going to be at dinner with his family and told him Devin was most likely coming down with croup cause Elizabeth had it, but that we'd keep him isolated(which turned out to be very easy!). They were fine with it so we got ready and headed to Tony's parents' house. Pretty much as soon as we got there Devin started crashing and stopped moving, he snuggled with me and I could literally feel his temperature rise, so we got him some medicine and Tony called to see if there were any Insta Cares open, but it was too late in the afternoon so everything was closed for the holiday. We put Devin in Tony's parents' sitting room(off their bedroom) and let him rest and watch Bolt(which is one of his favorite movies), and a couple other shows. We tried to get him to drink some cold water but he just didn't want to, we couldn't get his pediasure in him either. This is when I start to get worried that he'll get too dehydrated and we'll end up at Primaries in the ER, which is NOT where I wanted to spend Thanksgiving! Luckily Tony found some "Cool Blue" Gatorade and Devin started drinking that, putting my mind at ease a bit. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner thanks to Tony's dad(Tony's work provided the 21 pound turkey as they always do). It was a great meal, and a lot of good visiting. Elizabeth LOVED playing with her cousins Melina and Carson. After Russ and Alicia left we too got ready to head home. That night my mom and I went to Michael's and found a few things but were overall rather unimpressed. We stopped by Toys R Us strictly so I could pick up Devin's Batman ornament and it wasn't bad as the rush had died down hours before. Friday my mom and I went out at around 8 and were not enthused by the deals this year. Black Friday seems to be officially no more...at least no more what it used to be, like oh say actually being on Friday! So this is most likely the last year we'll go to stores Friday. Next year my mom came up with the ingenious plan to get breakfast from Madbrooks gather around our laptops or tablets and do our black Friday shopping solely via the internet, then go to lunch afterward! Kinda wish we'd have just done that this year but it was still nice to spend most of the day with my mom. I did find a lot of nice clothes for me, and a couple things for Devin(he's growing out of his 4T clothes!) I of course found a few cute things for Elizabeth too! After we had shopped til we were literally ready to drop, we had an early lunch(we didn't get breakfast) at Texas Road House, which was delicious. We talked a bit about how hard the holiday season has been without Eric. It just doesn't seem the same or right without him....I've never spent a holiday season without him(not even during his mission as he had to return before the holidays due to health issues). Honestly it's incredibly hard. I think of all of his childhood ornaments and the memories they hold, and of an empty stocking that will never need to be filled again. I can't stop the sadness from welling up inside me or the tears from coming. It sucks....it just plain completely sucks. But it was nice to talk about it with my mom who completely understands. We did manage to talk of more uplifting things as well. ;) We stopped by Dollar Tree for some things my mom needs for the family Christmas party she's hosting then we went home. While my mom and I were shopping my dad watched Elizabeth while Tony took Devin to Insta Care to get the steroid medication for his Croup. Tony started at the Insta Care in Layton just up the road from us but they quoted him an hour and a half wait! So he opted to drive to Bountiful where there was a MUCH shorter wait. Tony said he knew Devin wasn't feeling well cause he didn't complain about going to the dr with daddy instead of mommy(he's been super clingy to me lately). He said the Dr there was really good with Devin once he informed her about his Autism. We really love that Insta Care!! He didn't touch the Otter Pop or the sucker they gave him there. :( Tony says they were back home about the time they hopefully would have been seen at Layton, CRAZY!! Tony dropped Devin off with my dad then went and got the prescription and because it was taking a bit longer, he went and got a haircut while it was being filled. Then came home and helped my dad watch the kiddos til my mom and I got home. My parents got them super cute and fun Dalmatian dogs that play a Christmas song and one jumps and the other shakes around in a circle, they are so fun to watch! The kids LOVE them! Tony and my dad got Christmas boxes down out of the garage, and we ordered pizza for all of us for dinner. And that was that.

Watching the Jingle and Belle show.