Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Thanksgiving is interesting when you have no extended family around. It was just our little family of 5 this year, but we managed to make it fun. We had a breakfast of homemade pumpkin cinnamon rolls covered in too much frosting, and bacon, to start off the day of gluttony. Then I tried looking for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade online, but all I found were webcams, and the views weren't very inspiring, so I had to give up that idea. There were plenty of movies on Netflix though, and we had munchies throughout the day.

In the early afternoon George took Errol and Raia out to the movies, and while they paid to see Puss in Boots, George accidentally walked into the theater for The Muppets, which he didn't realize until he had to take Errol out to use the potty early on in the movie (he'd thought it was a "short" playing before the actual movie). Raia was upset for a bit, when he told her of the mistake, but they stuck out the movie and really enjoyed it. :)

Meanwhile, I stayed home with Patrick and prepared the food. We bought a *massive* turkey, and cheesy potatoes, and stuffing, and a sweet potato casserole I'd prepared the day before and baked after the turkey was done. Plus we had bread rolls, plus fried bread, plus egg nog, fruit salad with marshmallows in it, and a green jello/pineapple concoction. And the munchies. Ya. Really. Lots of food! And it was gooooood. :9 (now to see if we can eat our way through the leftovers before Christmas gets here! LOL)

As a "writting assignment" for the kids, I had them write out their Christmas lists after dinner. Here they are (original spelling and grammer intact)

Raia's:
Dear Santa I want slippers an american doll an teby bear and jumprope Love Raia
Errol's letter: I WONT A GUMBALL MSHIN AND BIG TRAINSET AND THE DONL DUCK AND PRSEY

(yes, he wrote it in all capital letters. The "Donl duck" is actually Duck from Thomas the Train, not the Disney he Duck. I think he got the two confused)

Not bad. :) We already had a few ideas of what to get them, and had also already bought some of the things on their lists.

After dinner began the countdown to my favorite shopping day of the year! (No, seriously!) I loooooooove Black Friday! Even before midnight we scored a deal on a "big train set" at the ToysRUs website. It took us 45 minutes to get through the check out though! Our in-person Black Friday experiences were much less stressful.

George got in on Black Friday shopping this year too (typically it's just been me). He lined up at Target at 9am to get the Razor scooter with light-up wheels we wanted to get for Errol, plus some movies and a Wii game. He got there before the line got too huge, and the only unpleasant part of his trip was the heavy rain that briefly fell, but he wore his duster jacket that he got when he lived in Colorado, so he stayed dry (it's made from treated canvas). The store opened at midnight and he was back in the car and heading home by 12:15.

I tried sleeping while he was out, but was too anxious to relax, and then a couple of really loud lightening strikes woke me up pretty good, and I finally gave up and decided to head to WalMart at 3am. The place was *dead*!!! Apparently I got in there in the window of time between the die-hard "Gotta Be First In Line" BF shoppers, and the "I'm not waking up early on Black Friday as a matter of principle" people. I had my pick of parking spaces, and my pick of the deals (almost all of the non-big-ticket deals were still well in stock). I got some good deals, dropped them off back at home, then went to stand in line for Fred Meyer's 5am opening to get some of the last few things on my Black Friday shopping list. It was a cold wait, but not long, and I had my iPod with me to pass the time. :) I got everything that was on my list, and was in and out in 20 minutes.

When I got home Errol was awake, and as we'd told the kids that Friday was likely to be spent doing some Christmas shopping, he begged to be taken to the store, even before Breakfast! So I took him to WalMart where he picked out his present for Raia, Patrick, and Dad. When I got home Raia was up, and she had the same request, so we went to Fred Meyer (they give out free donuts and coffee or juice on Black Friday, which is why she picked that store), and she did the same thing as Errol. We were done with about 80% of our Christmas shopping before 8am Friday morning. Booyah! (of course, George still had to take the kids out so they could find something for *me*, but that was about it. He took them to Costco, and they had a ball :)

I LOVE Black Friday! I know people see it as a sign of corporate and personal greed, but I have a more Pollyanna look at it. I see all these people buying things for family and friends, for their kids, things they've been wanting for themselves for a while, but haven't been able to afford; I see family groups waiting in line as a part of their annual tradition, or complete strangers finding themselves outside a store at 4am and deciding to chat it up. Lots of people smiling at each other, recognizing a fellow crazy person out shopping in the middle of the night. The worst issue I've ever had to deal with on a Black Friday is shopping cart traffic jams (which is why I never take a cart on those trips). I guess I've just been blessed to never have witnessed rioting or pepper-spraying or whathaveyou happening when I've been Black Friday shopping. I've seen people being helpful, people smiling and laughing about the odd situation they're in, people excited about the cool gift they got for someone they care about and looking forward to seeing their reaction (like the lady in front of me at Fred Meyer who had bought a Wii for her grandson). I see a lot of love and "Good Will Toward Men", only slightly spoiled by the bad apples that always seem to make it on the news.

Honestly, Black Friday gives me the warm fuzzies!

And now my deals are all wrapped up, tagged, and bowed, and stashed away until Christmas Eve.

I love Christmas. :)