Thanksgiving

Overall, Thanksgiving was good this year.  Thursday morning, both Joe and I were sans children and had tried to sign up to volunteer, but everywhere was full and turned me away when I called, so we ended up going to breakfast, laughing at their "special" menu and then heading to the casino so he could pass some time until we each parted ways and got our children.

It was nice to spend an otherwise lonely day with someone fun.

Thursday evening, I got my kids back and we headed over to Chas' other Grandma's house for a quick dinner.  We didn't stay long, but stayed long enough for Chas and his cousin Benji to get their annual Lego Advent calendars and then headed home.

Chas was really wanting to go Black Friday shopping (he'd never been before) and I knew that I couldn't guarantee that I'd wake up early enough to go shopping with all the crazies, so I did what any other good mother would do.

I told him we'd stay up late and hit the Midnight-Opening stores.

I didn't really NEED anything, as most of my shopping has been done, however there were a few items at Kohl's that were a good deal and would finish some loose ends of shopping I had to do.

So away we went, out to the general public at 11:15 at night. 

I had to do a quick and dirty education to my novice black Friday shoppers before we went in.  Go through the doors, cut through the Juniors department  and grab a cart... and QUICK.  My son executed flawlessly as we received one of the last 3 carts in the store.  SCORE! 

The Kohl's line was long getting in, but I had a plan, I knew what I wanted and we were in and out before the checkout lanes got too long.  I even had a receipt from the week before that they adjusted the price down on, so all-in-all, was a pretty successful trip to Kohl's with the kids.

We got home at about 2:30 a.m., after hitting a couple of other stores, and of course then I had my second wind and was up wrapping gifts until about 3:20 when I headed to bed.  My mom arrived bright and early at just after 7 am to begin helping me cook our family's Thanksgiving Dinner for today.

We got everything cooked and were sitting down to eat by 1 o'clock.  It was so nice to have my Grandpa over, despite the difficulty of missing Grandma, it was very nice to visit with him and try to keep him happy.

After lunch, the kids and I headed to the cemetary to visit Grandma, ran some errands and ended up kicking off the Christmas season by driving to look at Christmas lights for a little while.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I have a girls lunch at Olive Garden with Bekah, Jenny, Ashley and Crystal before we attend a fellow 80's Lady's daughter's 1st Birthday event!  I'm so excited to see the beautiful Miss Rachel at her Birthday festivities. 

I filled out my December calendar on my refridgerator this evening and was so excited to see all of the holiday festivities/exchanges/etc coming up!  Have I mentioned that I LOVE the holidays!?  I love looking under the tree and seeing all the fun gifts I get to bless people with.  I know that Christmas isn't about the gifts but it IS about giving and I love to spend time with others and give.  It's hard to believe that one month from today is Christmas and then, New Years and.... well...

2012!!  I cannot wait to see what 2012 brings for my family.  Whether good or bad, I'm ready for a new year.