Y'all, this Thanksgiving break was one for the fiction section. I think I could write a very successful novel about this break in the tradition of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever or A Christmas Story. To start off the extravaganza, Mom & I met Cassandra and Patsy (our cousins) in Shawnee for lunch on Tuesday. We had a great time, and then went shopping at the Shawnee Mall, which has come back from being quite dead. I picked out a few things for Christmas, bought myself a pair of boots that look almost exactly like my beloved brown lace-up boots that didn't make it back from Germany, and got some fabric. That's right...I'm going to make curtains for the living room over Christmas break!

Wednesday was similarly eventful.

Emily went to the phone store to get them to switch her back to her old phone cause the new one was awful. Instead, she ended up with an iphone. Behold world: the Burrises have entered the 21st century!

That evening we went to the movies and saw Mockingjay. The best part of the movie is definitely in the middle where they just show the trailer for the movie to District 13 and then they all cheer. I liked that they cheered because it covered up Em's & my laughter.

After that we went by Lowe's because Mom & Dad needed something. (I have no idea what. We bought a poinsettia.) We found some Chelsea barstools, and then Emily and I skipped around serenading the store with lovely song. (Mom & Dad mysteriously disappeared...we couldn't find them. We ended up waiting out in the car.)

(We sang this song.)

Here we are at the movies. We're excited because we can take selfies with Em's new phone.

That evening we went to see Grandma & Granddad because Granddad had surgery - he looks like he got hit in the face quite a lot, but he seemed fine besides that. He was in good enough spirits to join Mom in mildly heckling Grandma while she was on the phone.

It's not Thanksgiving without a gun! (Jk. This was my first Thanksgiving gun.)

On Thanksgiving we went to my other grandparents' house. It was quite a fun time - Grandma made ham, which made me super happy because I really find turkey totally pointless. (Unless it's ground turkey for tacos. Ground beef is so expensive!) One of my uncles was there, but most of my cousins had come the day before - I'm sorry to have missed them because I'm pretty sure I still haven't met some of them!!

We got to see the famed hogs that Grandpa keeps on having to shoot at because his neighbor won't keep them in a pen. Additionally, there was an armadillo in the yard, so Dad tried to shoot it. (Hence the gun.) Overall, it was a rather wonderful Thanksgiving! I ate most of a batch of chocolate chip cookies by myself, which is always a good day.

The Sisters Burris with a Thanksgiving goose.

Gameday! We watched Arkansas vs. Missouri on tv on Friday. It was a shame that they lost...but there's always next year!

I also read quite a lot during this break. Here are my quick review of these books:

Pulse by Patrick Carmen: Soooo good! I was excited because the library had the sequel when I went this afternoon. It's another dystopian book, but the twist is that the main characters are (so far) working to preserve the new government system.

Salvage by Alexandra Duncan: This book is science fiction feminism. It's fantastic if you can get over the fact that the girl talks kinda weird...she says "so" all the time and it took me most of the book to learn to ignore that.

Interworld by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves: Totally okay. I got the sequel today as well. Sometimes I love Neil Gaiman, and sometimes his characters are in such frustrating situations that I don't like it. Whatever, I still loved Neverwhere.

The Diviners by Libba Bray: I'd heard of Libba Bray a lot before I read any of her books. I was surprised by how much I liked this book - it's pretty creepy, and it definitely gave me a nightmare. It's also really long, so I was surprised when the ending was a bit of a cliffhanger. Even worse, the library didn't have the sequel checked in, so I'll have to wait for it!

I also reread one of the Fudge books by Judy Blume and was dismayed to discover that I'm closer in age to the parents than to Peter.

On Saturday we went to Tulsa to visit Target, which was quite fun! After that we stopped at the Muskogee mall to see a movie - Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, which was super cute.

Today I agreed to be the liturgist at church for December. I'm not quite sure how that happened...

I also got a fruit tea sampler pack, and the first cup I made diffused weirdly, and I thought it was pretty, so here's a picture!

Happy Advent, everyone!!