Happy Holidays!!

Now that the turkey coma has worn off, I've shopped my little heart out, and returned from LeMars (we were visiting Matt's parents) I finally have a few minutes to sit down and catch up on the blog. So, even though I've missed you by a few days, Happy Thanksgiving, and let the Christmas season begin! WOO-HOO!!

I love everything about this time of year... spending quality time with family and friends, having school and work closed, eating yummy food and SHOPPING! And... if there's something I love more than shopping, it's getting great deals WHILE shopping. Needless to say, I was one happy girl all weekend long!

Our Thanksgiving this year was very different from years past. Typically my Mom pulls out the China (OK, she does this often, but wouldn't dream of NOT dressing up the table this time of year), spends days getting ready, and HOURS cooking. Not this year. This year, my mom cooked what she could ahead of time, and then Thursday morning we had "lunch" up at Hospice with my Grandma. We ate at a banquet table with strangers who were going through the same sad situation facing our family, and reminisced about the holidays of the past. It was good to see my Grandma smile and hear her voice -- if only for a brief moment. When the meal was over and my Grandma was tired from all the commotion and company, we raced home to make our own Thanksgiving spread. My mom made the stuffing (which is my all time favorite food) and creamed onions (if you've never had these, they're to die for. Trust me!) on Wednesday and then Thursday we threw everything else together. It was like Iron Chef in the Clair and Hanson kitchens! It was some fast and furious cooking!

We had a great Thanksgiving... the food was yummy, the kids were angels, and we were surrounded by loved ones. We have a lot to be thankful for, and that's really what the day was about. And, I must confess.... eating off dishes that can go into the dishwasher was WONDERFUL!!

The day before (Wednesday) was a Katherine and Grammy day. Oh, how Katherine (and Grammy) loves these. I dropped her off around 10 when I went out to run my pre-Thanksgiving errands. So while Caleb and I ran to the grocery store and Michael's, Katherine and Grammy started working on the desserts. What started out as a girl's day, quickly turned into "Katherine needs to have a sleepover at Grammy's" kind of night. Fine by me!

OK, I know how random this is turning into but.... Black Friday ROCKS! Seriously, it's the best invention EVER, and I can't believe that I've never taken part -- until this year. It all started earlier in the week, when I was checking out the ads and found some great stuff on sale. So I asked some of the girls if they wanted to join me for some pre-dawn fun, and what fun it was! Carolyn picked me up at 4:30 and our first stop was at Wal-Mart. I was shocked at how many people were as crazy as we were!

They let us in the door before 5, but the entire store was roped off, so you couldn't get to any of the "good stuff" before 5 bells. As soon as they cut the yellow caution tape, I left Carolyn with the cart and went running. Literally. I ran straight to the toy department to get my hands on the much coveted laptop computer that Katherine "had" to have. It was originally in the $65 range, on sale for $25, so there was NO WAY I was leaving without one. I ended up buying 3... I can't pass up a good bargain! Katherine will have her laptop, and then I bought one for my niece Morgan and Katherine's friend, Ben. What a great start to the morning!!

I walked out of the aisle and started to look for Carolyn who was no where to be found. So there I am standing out in the aisle carrying these awkward boxes. All of a sudden, some lady tries to grab one of them out of my arms. Yea, that's not happening! I tell her to keep her paws off my stuff and she studders something about me not needing 3.... Right, sista! I got up at 3:45 so I could hand these out to you. I don't think so!!

Carolyn is still MIA, so I grab a few other must haves that would fit in my arms and notice a riot breaking out in electronics. Two women were fighting over the digital picture frames, and neither one was letting go of the box. I got a good chuckle out of that -- me and all three of my laptops! LOL!

When I finally caught up with Carolyn, I noticed that she abandoned the cart and was walking virtually empty handed. She handed me the ONE thing in her hand. It was the Ratatouille movie I mentioned that I wanted to get at Target later that morning as they had it on sale for $14. Evidently Wal-Mart had it on sale for $12 and that included an additional cooking DVD. BONUS!!

I ended up leaving Wal-Mart with 4 bags of stuff and a smile on my face!

We ended up racing over to Toys R Us, and spending about 10 minutes in the store, before we realized that we wouldn't be making a purchase there. As I later found out, the line to get in the store was over a half mile long, and trying to check out was an absolute nightmare. So, we abandoned ship and raced to Target. Again, the line to get in was super long.... literally as far as the eye could see, but as luck would have it, we got in right away and ended up with bags full of bargains. OH, happy day!

On a side note, I ran into TONS of people I knew -- literally, probably 20+. Everyone from my ex-coworkers... to neighbors... to Matt's current co-workers. It was great to see sooo many people I knew in my unshowered glory! LOL.

This was the start of a tradition! I will be shopping on Black Friday every year from now on. It was fantastic! LOVED it!

I got home before the kids woke up, and raced to hide the evidence of my mornings activities and shower so that we could leave for LeMars. We were all packed the night before, so we were on the road good and early -- like 9 am.

We had such a great weekend with Matt's parents. We had another Thanksgiving meal for lunch on Friday with Matt's brother, Jay, and family and Fran's brother, Roger and his son. Jay brought over his deep fat fryer and cooked the turkey. It was super yummy! Katherine was in heaven! She ate more than most of the adults!

After the kids went to bed, I ventured out to Wal-Mart to buy a pair of shoes for Caleb. I'm not sure what happened, but there was some miscommunication between Matt and I and his shoes got left at home. So... since I was there, I had to take a good look around to see if I missed anything earlier that morning. Remember the digital photo frames that people were fighting over in Des Moines? There was a stack in LeMars. Oh, and the computer that I almost had ripped from my arms??? There were several. Oh, and for all you scrapbookers -- Wal-Mart had the Cricut on sale for $119. They were gone in a matter of two minutes in Des Moines. LeMars had 3 sitting on the shelf at 10 pm. Evidently LeMars does not celebrate Black Friday in the same fashion as Des Moines!

Saturday morning, Fran and I decided to go shopping in Sioux City to see what other good deals we could find. JC Penny had air hockey tables that were still advertised as the "Black Friday" price, so we couldn't pass those up. Andrea got one for her boys last year for Christmas and the kids always fight over it at playgroup. So, I'm sure they'll love it! By the time we were ready to go home, her car was loaded down with bags and boxes from the day! Thankfully she got a lot of people knocked off the list!

Saturday night Fran and I watched The Holiday and then after Matt went to bed (what a party pooper) Wendell joined us for The Breakup. I couldn't handle it anymore.... I fell asleep during the last half hour and was out cold!

What a great weekend!