It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Can you believe that we are officially under one month to go until Christmas? Where has the year gone? The kids were excited to get out the Christmas decorations and put up the Christmas trees on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We have one in our basement and one upstairs (I guess in case Santa gets lost - or maybe confused and leaves us twice as many gifts?!?). There are still plenty of boxes of Christmas decorations to put up. I'm sure we will get them up eventually just in time to put them away again until next year.

Southern Illinois Thanksgiving

This year the Turner Tribe headed down to Southern Illinois for Thanksgiving. The first stop was Angie's Mema Mary's House on Thanksgiving Day where we got to visit with her Dad, her Mema and Willard, her Aunt Nancy and Uncle Doug, along with her first cousins Charisse and Neil. The kids got to ride Papa Curt's horse, Sonny (which they loved) and Brandon learned how to play Checkers. When we were leaving, Willard challenged Brandon to a game of checkers on the next visit. Brandon assured him that he would beat him, so Willard told him that they would play for five bucks. Brandon agreed and told him, "If I win, you give me your five dollars and if you win, you get to keep your five dollars!" That's my boy!!!

Stop Number 2 (on Day 2) of the Thanksgiving Tour was at Angie's Mema Larrie's house. We got to visit with her Mema, her mom, Aunts, Uncles, and lots of cousins. We were able to get all the youngsters together for a picture. Brandon and Brittany got their pictures taken with their first cousin once removed (Rachael), and second cousins (Lane, Katelynn, Alianah, and baby Kaden). Brittany was being her normal shy self and Brandon thought there were too many girls there!

To finish out the Thanksgiving Trifecta, the Tour ended at my parent's house on Friday evening for a Thanksgiving Dinner. We visited with my parents and sister Kim and Brother-In-Law David, while Brandon and Brittany had a ball playing with first cousins Ashley and Aaron. After two filled days, we came back up to Springfield on Saturday afternoon to finally get some rest and recover from the long weekend. Only 4 more weeks until we do it all over again!!!

Illinois Finishes 9-3!

I would like to point out that before the season I said the Illini would go 9-3 when I went down the schedule. They won a couple games against teams I thought they would get beat and lost a couple I thought they would win, but I still guessed the record correctly. This was a great year to have season tickets! Although sitting in the horseshoe is not the best seats in the stadium, you still had great views of action on the South End. The picture above shows Mendenhall scoring one of his many rushing touchdowns this year! Looking forward to watching the Illini play on New Year's Day!!!!!!

Brandon's Tribe

Let's hope that the NCAA doesn't find out that Brandon's school had a Native American Day at school this week or else his college eligibility could be in jeopardy. Angie went and helped in his class for the morning. They made Native American vests, jewelry, sand art, pottery, dream catchers, and tambourines. I think next week they are going to complain about university symbols and open a casino. Brandon enjoyed it and he will always be our "little Chief".

Brandon "Deron Williams" Turner

Brandon has been playing in a basketball league at his elementary school. He has been a little timid in the earlier games, but each time he is getting more into the games. Recently he had his best game by getting a couple of rebounds, causing two jump balls, and made several assists (which is virtually unheard of in these games). The regular season wrapped up on the 17th, but he is suppose to play at an Alumni game at the high school on December 1st.

The Pizza Machine

We celebrated my birthday and the Illini victory over Ohio State at The Pizza Machine on Saturday night. The picture is someone's 40 inch pizza being delivered to their table with the pizza crane. If two people people finish it within 60 minutes, they will pay you $500. They had a sign showing they now have a 60 inch pizza too! It was a very different place. The restaurant has two levels and there is a magician/juggler performing on the weekends. He was really amazing. There is also various machinery pieces, including an old auger that the kids could crank to move a ball up it to drop 30 feet below and a slide down to the lower level that the kids enjoyed. My parents and niece (Ashley) went with us and the kids. The pizza was good and the atmosphere was unique! Of course, everything was better after the big birthday victory!

My Birthday Wish

Is it too much to ask for a victory on my birthday tomorrow? I hope not. It will be a huge test for the Illini to see how they measure up and how much more they need to grow to play with the elite teams. Go Illini!!!!

UPDATE:

WOW!!!! If I would have known my birthday wish was going to come true, maybe I should have wished for financial gain! Maybe next year! That game was incredible. They played about as well as they could. That 4th Quarter drive was as good as it gets. It was gutsy to go for it deep in their own territory on 4th and inches, then Juice carrying the ball on 3rd and 7 & 3rd and 10 on that final drive! Let's hope they don't have a letdown next week against Northwestern. Way to go Illini!!