Happy Thanksgiving

We had another great Thanksgiving. We went home and ate lunch with my husband's side of the family and had supper with my side of the family. Both meals were delicious, but I must admit, eating two Thanksgiving dinners in one day is plenty for me. At the end of the day on Thursday I felt like I had eaten so much food I wouldn't need to take another bite for the rest of the weekend. N played with my sister's boys really well. He and his cousin R (if you know us, you can probably figure out who R is) were like two peas in a pod. R was very interested in everything N could do and say and N wanted to do everything R was doing. R is about six years older than N, but N managed to keep up with him every step of the way. We decided not to stay the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house this year because, once again, we are all sick. (N was sick last year on Thanksgiving so we didn't end up staying over night last year either.)

My husband was up at 4am Friday morning coughing and couldn't go back to sleep, so he headed out to Best Buy for Black Friday (BF) to buy the TV he had his eye on. This was the first year he's ever done BF and he actually handled it very well.... In fact, I think he kind of liked it! He got the TV he went for, but later found out it's not exactly what he thought it was. Apparently Best Buy has a special model made specifically for BF. A few of the bells and whistles are purposely left off this model so it can be priced for the door buster deal. I think that's kinda naughty of Best Buy to do, almost false advertising in my opinion. So my husband is following some chat boards where people are talking about the TV to see if he wants to keep it.

D got home about 7:30 from his BF trip, so I headed out. And honest to God I only made it to one store.....I was there for 3.5 hours!! I was at Kohl's. D and I always joke that Kohl's is a black hole for me. Early on in our marriage we decided that we could not shop at Kohl's together because I get so caught up in my shopping there that I end up losing track of time and that drive's D crazy. We can never find each other while shopping at that store and always ended up fighting because of it, so Kohl's is a place we absolutely do not go to together... :)

Anyway, back to BG. I used the wish list feature on the Kohl's website to make my shopping list the night before. I found lots of gifts I wanted to get for my family...and myself. I also had an additional 15% off coupon they sent me in the mail, so I saved another good chunk of money by using that. Kohl's was running a deal that for every $50 you spent you got a $10 coupon... I got a few of those and was only one dollar and some change from reaching another $50 to give me one more $10 coupon and the lady wouldn't give it to me! Darn! If only I'd bought that $2 place mat
I put back on the shelf I would have gotten $10 more in coupons! Bummer!

As I stood in line at Kohl's I did notice something really funny. Have you ever noticed that some of the stores have their holiday candy/cookie tins strategically placed near the check out line? Well I wonder if they do that because they know that on BF you're going to be in line for a while and might need a snack while you wait. I think they put the goodies there because they know it will take a special kind of self control to resist buying the overpriced goodies. I must admit I was momentarily tempted by the puppy chow/moose munch they had packaged as "reindeer food." Man, that sounded good after three hours of shopping... Chocolate and peanut butter is my favorite combination! Then I looked at the price tag and it was $20!!! $20 for 10 ounces of puppy chow??? No way!! I could make a boat load of puppy chow for $20! I did have a snack with me... Not quite as fun and much more healthy, but also much cheaper!! So I ate my little package of trail mix while I waited.

I am happy with my purchases. I give props to those of you who stayed out all day and shopped!Some of my friends shopped like it was their job and that's awesome! I wish I could have. I have in th passed, but this cold thingy I have wouldn't allow it. I just didn't have the "gas" to shop more than a few hours. That night we made M&M cookies and watched N's new favorite movie Wall-e.

We put our Christmas tree up today. D brought the tree inside and opened the box. N stood over the box anxious to see what it was. When D opened it N exclaimed " I love it!!" He pulled out a few tree branches to help us and then lost interest in less than five minutes. That little turkey. Our tree is color coded to indicate where the branches go. N is getting better and better at his colors each day, so I thought he'd like finding the colors we needed... Nope. No such interest.
After eating lunch and playing for a little bit N went down for a nap. While he was sleeping D and I finished decorating the tree. N will see the finished product when he comes downstairs after his nap. I'll be interested to see what his reaction is. In the past D and I have surrounded the tree with baby gates to keep N away from the tree, but we haven't put them up yet. I want to see if we can teach him not to touch the tree so we don't have to put the gates up. D and I decided that if N touches the tree (and doesn't stop touching it after being warned) that he'll get a time out. N usually responds pretty well to that method so I hope it works. Keep your fingers crossed, but don't hold your breath. :)

After taking a nap and taking it easy today I do feel a little bit better so we are going to attend our local parade of lights. The tradition we have developed over the years is to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant before heading to the parade then we get bundled up and watch the lighted floats drive out of the barn they are stored in. We usually don't make it long enough to watch the whole parade then we head home. It actually works out pretty well because N's attention span works in our favor. We end up leaving before the traffic gets too congested.