Thanksgiving and the Beginning of December

So its been a while since I wrote to you.  Things have been pretty busy with the new addition to our home.  Bailey, our new pup, has brought a little excitement, if not destruction, to us for the holidays and we’ve been enjoying it even when we’ve been arguing over who has to take her out at night when its cold outside.  Regardless, she is a super sweetie and hopefully, on Monday, I’ll be able to add Santa pictures of the puppies.

Thanksgiving

Shea and I hosted Thanksgiving this year and it was stressful.  But on the upside it was a joy to have family and friends at the house, use my china and eat left overs…yummmm. 

Chuck and Mom carving turkey

Shea bought me flowers and we got to use my china...even the gravy boat!

Lots of food, we had it on the table and on the counter.

Pies, pumpkin, pecan, pecan sweet potato, cherry, blueberry, chocolate, coconut & strawberry rubbard

If it weren’t for Mom and Don coming over the night before to help with the turkey and dressings, I’m not sure I would have gotten it all done.  I do have to say…it was funny to see Shea and me struggling with a 20+ pound turkey trying to corral it into the roasting pan.  Both of us were saying things like should we…and responding with I don’t know I’ve never done this before…anyway.  Although tired I did enjoy the day and Lisa Christensen’s wine addition was delish. 

Once everyone left, Shea and I lay on the couch watching TV while the puppies played and I finally got to look at Thursday’s ads.  Mom decided it wasn’t worth it to shop on Thursday so I headed out myself to Walmart…what a nightmare…The parking lot was full and so were the parking lots of all the stores around it…people were parking on the other side of the freeway and walking over…luckily I found a space on the side of Walmart (ever the optimist to even try) and since there were no carts…ended up making 3 trips in and out hand carrying items.  The first was toys for tots, the second was niece and nephew gifts and the third was for everyone else.  Boy did my arms hurt after lugging all that out to the car.  People were crazy and I think a little drunk.  I’ve decided if they do another Thanksgiving night opening that I won’t be part of it…So that was at 10p and by 11p, I was at Super Target in a line that wrapped ½ way around to store.  I played angry birds on my iphone for an hour while waiting.  By the time Target opened at 12a, the line was doubled…Luckily, they were only letting 50 in at a time so it wasn’t crazy like Walmart.  Got in and out fast and went to bed so Mom and I could start shopping at 6am.

Black Friday

Wow what a difference, we missed the 4am openings so were following the crowds…and there were no crowds.  Whats weird is that we got we were searching for.  Bestbuy, the parking lot was almost empty and Mom found all three items that she had wanted.  All of which were on sale.  We then went to Bass Pro Shop…when we walked in, there was a line to the entrance…we grabbed our donuts (thank you bass pro) and headed over to the item Mom wanted…both of us were in agreement if it wasn’t there we weren’t waiting in that line…but come to find out there was one left; it was the model opened for viewing…As Mom waited for the box, the guy came racing out to let us know he’d found 6 more … way cool and even better, by the time we walked up to the front there was no line.  Next was Bed Bath and Beyond…again store was nearly empty and there was no line.  Every store we went to the lines were 2 deep or less…we just kept getting good parking places and finding all of our sale items…WOW.  It was a really good Black Friday and we were done by noon.  That night, Shea and I went and saw the Muppets…Great movie. 

Saturday

Shea and I started putting up our trees (yes plural).  I’ll get pictures up soon.  But the house looks great.  That evening, we went over to Rose’s where I hope she continues to have her “Christmas Card Party” although Shea and I were the only ones who actually worked on our cards (thank you Suz for helping with the stamps.  Got most of them done while we watched Buddy the Elf, A Christmas Story and the Grinch…and we got to eat Rose’s yummy Chili.  It was great.

Sunday

Rose and I went to Casa Manana to watch Santa Clause…YUK, the music was horrible and it wasn’t like any story I’d heard of for how Santa became Santa.  Whatever.  Rose and I suffered through it and survived. We even agreed that we’ll try another one next year since we liked Rudolf so much last year.  After that I went over to Lita and Chuck’s as Shea was hanging with them, while the dogs had a play date.  Boy were the pups tired.  Poor Prince could barely move on Monday.  Always enjoy visiting with Chuck and Lita.  It was a great weekend!

First Weekend of December

Our first weekend in December was spent cleaning and decorating.  I’ve got more to do but as early as it is…we’re in pretty good shape…we even have decorations outside this year though I need to find a place for our plastic Santa…he’s a cutie and find the gooses’ outfits…Right now they’re naked cause I can’t find the Santa outfit … not sure what I did with it.  We also attended a Veteran Show that our dance teacher put on in Wylie…It was very small townish and there was a lot of sweet spirit.  My favorite part was the guys with the riffles where the leader actually walked up the rifles like it was a stairwell.  Too cool.  So most of the Christmas cards have been mailed, most of the decorations are up, most gifts are wrapped and have been mailed to out of town family.  I’ve even got my lighted village up this year.  I think Shea thinks I go over board…he’s right.