And we're off!

It was like I could hear the gun shot that signals the start of a race. Folks, the season is here.

Our season started off with the Thanksgiving Eve baking o' the pie. Tradition is that each Thanksgiving morning is started out with a piece of pumpkin pie. K- even knows this! Mom told me that I've had pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving breakfast every Thanksgiving except for my first, where I ate Cream of Wheat due to my refusal to drink milk as a baby. (True story. I've always hated the taste of milk and Mom put me on Cream of Wheat at 6 weeks old. And yes, Janeen, I can see you twitching.)

Thanksgiving morning came with the smell of rising rolls in the air. While I baked those, I readied the turkey. That was 7 AM and the stove wasn't turned off until 12:30 PM. Everything was ready for a small lunch, as we were going to my mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner. (Yes, I cooked everything that I cooked so that we could have leftovers!) We hung out there for a few hours. My sister and I divided the newspaper and conquered creating our day after shopping list.

Leland fell out of the highchair and onto a rug, but is fine.

My brother felt the need to continue to give my sister and me "wet willies" even though we begged him not to. I didn't think it was funny the first time, but the continued "willying" really took my nerves to the end of where they could possibly be. He prepared a plate of leftovers for home, then went off roaming somewhere. I added a note to his plate (under the foil and in a plastic baggy) that said, "My dearest brother, Please know how much I love you. I could have messed with your plate of food, but I didn't. Realize that I thought about it, though. Love, Amy." To think, he never called me about it. Hopefully, that will end his "wet willy" adventures. Unfortunately, he's 6'4" and I'm about 5' 3/4". It's not like I can successfully tackle him.

Thanksgiving evening, my in-law's stopped over for pie. Their dinner had been later than anticipated, so they were with us for about 40 minutes, but it was nice to have them stop in.

When they left, I hopped in the tub and got myself into bed. 3 AM sure comes early!

My sister ended up here at 3:45 AM on Black Friday morning. We stopped by Circle K to get caffeine, then we were off. We went to Kohl's, found what we needed, then stood in line for an hour to check out. No kidding.

We went onward to Target. We were there 1 hour after they opened and almost all of their opening sale items were gone. No big TV that I was going to pick up for my in-law's. (Since I was out!) No $3.00 appliances. (My sister wanted a cheap coffee pot for the garage.) We found a few odds and ends. The line reached around the store. I remembered something, though. I sent my sister to the end of the line and went to the jewelry counter. The kind cashier was cashing out small orders. I called my sister. "RUN!" She did. We were in and out of Target in 39 minutes. The line? 5 minutes or less.

After Target, we decided to hit Walmart. I seriously have to say that I hated my Walmart experience. Things they had advertised ($3.00 jammies or kids jogging suits) were no where to be found. I mean, not a display or anything. The items I purchased were end cap castoffs. I found two Star Wars sweatshirts for K-. One had a smudge of dirt and the other was crammed into a display of men's pajamas. Another item I picked up was Barbie on a bike. My sister found some things, then we went to stand in line.

Folks, never allow me to pick a line if you are ever shopping with me. It is like I always choose the short line at the Department of Motor Vehicles. You know the one! It is for farm tractors or specialty vehicles.

Oh sweet love of all. I ended up behind a family that had three full carts. They were overflowing. It looked as if they were there at start of sale. I figured that it would go quick, since a chunk of what they had were in big boxes. My sister and I talked. We people watched. Then we started really watching. We didn't really notice what was going on until they started checking the girl out in front of me. The family had developed a discard pile on the floor at the beginning of the belt. I noticed that in that pile was a half consumed Starbuck's beverage. (Not paid for, of course.) The girl had the cashier run a subtotal after every item. Then she was switching things. She didn't want this. Well, maybe she does want that. "You overcharged me." Her credit card was declined. The coworkers started moving in closer. I noticed a guard standing 5 feet from the girl, with her hand ON her gun. (No, we weren't in a back alley Walmart.)

The girl and her family were trying to trip the cashier up and walk away with merchandise that confused the lady enough to think that the girl had paid for it.

I admit that before I realized what all the people were doing, I finally said, "Oh for God's sakes! Can't you make a choice?!" The girl was about 10 feet from me and I doubt that she heard me. I couldn't take it anymore! My mom called at the same time telling me about snow, she couldn't see the ground, where were we . . . I said, "Mom, I really don't care about snow. I have 4 wheel drive. I'm stuck in a line at Walmart with a girl that can't seem to make a decision and my nerves are SHOT!"

After the girl left, I'm sure with a line of Walmart employees tagging her, the cashier apologized. I apologized and explained that I couldn't understand what was going on, but I knew it wasn't her fault. She said, "Everytime they come in, they do this."

A known family. Hmm.

To note, I've never had a Black Friday experience like that ever.

My sister and I decided that we were done. We had to go to Lowe's to pick up some items for the men in our lives and we were going home. I picked up an apology poinsettia for my sister. It was on sale for 99 cents. She asked why? "Don't ever let me choose a line again." "But, you did so well at Target!"

I went home, dropped some things off and decided to do another tour. I found items that I bought for K- cheaper, so I took others back and Hubs was loving on a Stainless Steel water bottle that I bought at Kohl's. He wanted one for his stocking. (A not so subtle hint.) Long story short, I ended up at home at about 11:30 AM, feeling as if I had put in a full day.

Hubs and K- were putting the Christmas tree up. They got it lit and passed it on to me. First, I took a short nap.

I started the tree, but admit that it rolled over to Saturday, too. K- and Hubs worked on the lights, which took all day since our mama dear seemed to be having some illumination problems.

Saturday morning came and I started working on the tree. After what added up to probably 9 hours or more, the tree got done. Later in the evening, Hubs noticed that I made the front of the tree so dripping in ornaments, that he needed to tie it to the wall since it had a pretty pronounced lean forward.

For the balance of Saturday, we worked together and managed to decorate the rest of the house. We did a really awesome job!

Our evening ended with us curled up, watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I was so spent, that I fell asleep before K-.

That brought us to Sunday morning. It was our last door greeter morning, so we had to be there at 8:30 AM. Since the Festival Choir sang in the morning service, we had practice at 9:15 AM. I ended up skipping Sunday School, as I would only be there for 15 minutes anyhow. When church was over, we met up with Kim and her husband, as we waited to pick the kids up. They'll be coming over for dinner on Friday, then we'll be going to get the kids their second installment of the H1N1 shots. (K- is beyond thrilled. Add much sarcasm, please.) I left Hubs to fetch K- as I tried to score K- a Star Wars ornament from Hallmark. (More on that story tomorrow.)

On my way home, I decided to loop past Walmart to return a handful of items. I waited and waited, then had a guy line jump right in front of me. Apparently, he had waited before and needed to even exchange pants. It kind of irritated me, but I felt really bad when Walmart gave me an additional $9.96 in refund. You see, I accidentally purchased a Blue Ray disk of Wedding Crashers for Hubs the other day (call it extremely tired), it went through at $10.00 instead of the $2.00 DVDs and we don't have Blue Ray anyhow. It returned at the price of $19.96 and before signing the receipt, I called it to the attention of the sales associate. He told me that it was Walmart's fault, there was nothing he could do about it, he appreciated my honesty, but he was still going to give me the extra money because he couldn't fix it anyhow.

So I picked up some groceries we needed.

I came home, had a bite of lunch, then started to tackle the Christmas cards. I absolutely HAD to have them done this weekend. K-'s birthday is December 20 and I include the birthday invite in with the cards. It is a personal goal to get them out Thanksgiving weekend. (Or at least complete in this case.) I'll stop by to post them on my way to work.

But the printer gave me fits.

I couldn't get the font to download properly and I spent a lot of time on it.

In the end, the birthday invites look okay, though I wished that I had the Star Wars font. That's fine. They are done and Hubs was impressed. K- likes them. They are the only two that matter, right?

I've been cooking this weekend and admit that I've really enjoyed getting back into the kitchen. We ate Thanksgiving Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoon. K- and I couldn't take it anymore, so I made us turkey tacos (from ground turkey) and refried beans and cheese. We had that after church for lunch, too. Sunday evening was turkey meatloaf and couscous. Hubs liked it so much that he went for seconds. K- and I still have enough of our half to have it again this evening for dinner.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings will be gift wrapping nights. (I haven't a box wrapped though my shopping is done.) Thursday my goal is to start my holiday baking. I'll let that roll over to Friday, too. I figure that if I can give Thursday and Friday of a few weeks, I'll get my baking pounded out. Saturday is Lowe's and the Santa Shop for K-'s school. She's been busy doing many chores and being extremely helpful so as to earn money to shop with.

We had to institute a new fine system with K- though. I keep seeing her sneaking the sucking of the thumb. I told her that for each time we see her sucking her thumb when it isn't bedtime, it is a quarter fine. So far, she owes us one quarter. She cried and cried. We've got to break her of it. She only does it now when she is tired, but we really need to ditch it altogether eventually.

My smiles for the weekend are included above. Hope that you have a great week!