Thanksgiving, a birthday and Black Friday

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. I know I did. It was a little weird because the kids and I were gone while Kevin stayed home. He and his Dad are attempting to build a bedroom for Chloe in our basement and I didn't really want to be home for that. Unfortunately, they met a few challenges along the way and not a whole lot of progress was made as far as the actual building process. But the kids and I certainly had a good time with my parents.


Thanksgiving itself was pretty low key: just me and the kids with my parents. My brother joined us on Friday night. And on Saturday, the kids and I drove to my grandparents' house which is midway between Mom and Dad's and our house. (Midway being nearly 3 hours to either one) We had Thanksgiving Dinner their with my Mom's extended family before heading home for Kevin's 30th birthday. Yes, you heard that right, Kevin turned 30 yesterday. I think he's handling it pretty well. He played around 18 hours of Xbox with his brothers that day, so I suppose he's trying to hold onto his youth or something.


For the past several years, my Dad and I have gone shopping on Black Friday. Previously, we've gone into the city, about an hour, but this year we decided to stay a little closer. The town they live in is less than 4000 people but still has a SuperWalMart, so we thought we'd check that out first thing. We got there at 5am and had to park on the grass, but the store was really not too bad. Everyone seemed to be pretty patient with each other and we were back home by 5:30. We didn't even wait in line to check out.

After a quick trip home for breakfast and to get Jadon, we headed into a slightly larger town nearby to do some more shopping. JJ lasted a couple of hours until we stood in line at the cutting table at JoAnn Fabrics forever. After the first half hour, my Dad decided to hold my place while I took Jadon home to Grandma for a nap. He was waiting in line to check out when I got back a half hour later. We hit several more stores and then made it home for lunch. Wanna see all my loot?




You didn't really think I'd show you all my Christmas presents did you? Not only did I get most of my shopping done(only a neice and a couple things for Micah left), I even got it all wrapped! Sorry for showing off, but I'm so excited to have that done so early this year. Hopefully I can get the rest finished next weekend so I can spend the rest of the time baking yummy goodies. That's one of my favorite things about this time of year. Oh yeah, my parents brought home a cat for my Dad's mother to visit (she just went into the nursing home near them) so this is the introduction she got to her new home. (sorry for the blurry photo, but I could not get this kid to be still!)