I have lots of great pics to share, but none today because I totally forgot the camera at home. Whoopsies. It is a crazy work week this week, and I can't be counted on for much at all.
Anyway, we had a lovely Thanksgiving, and the break from everything was very much appreciated and enjoyed. On Thursday, I spent the early part of the day in the kitchen, roasting turkey and making pies and all of that. Everything went off without a hitch, which was nice. The meal was wonderful, if I do say so myself. Matt said it was the best ever, but he says that every year. I was very proud of myself. After dinner, we watched a bit of football and napped and I slowly cleaned up the kitchen. We also planned for Black Friday shopping. I tried to get the kids in bed at a decent hour, but well, Alice is Alice and she read my mind that I was planning on getting up at 2:30 am to go shopping, and well, she decided to stay up until 2:00 am. I have no idea why, no idea what would possess her to do such a thing. But she did it. She wasn't grumpy about it--quite the opposite actually as she joyfully danced around the living room. But she would not go to sleep. At about 1:00, I just said to hell with it and sat up with her and ate dark chocolate almonds to keep myself awake. And at 2:30, I got Gabby up, and she and I went shopping.
Gabby and I go Black Friday shopping every year, and we truly have a blast. We always wear some kind of Christmas headgear (reindeer horns, Santa hat, etc.) and we have our set places to go and we buy very few gifts, but fun stuff for ourselves, our family, and for the holiday. We never go after a "big ticket" item like a TV or a camera (it is a little known fact that you can actually get better deals on brand name electronics if you wait until a couple of weeks before Christmas). We also drink copious amounts of Starbucks and giggle a lot. This year, Target was our first stop, as it always is. The line was much longer this year than in the past, but we got everything that I had wanted to get, including a toy for Sam (got the last one!) and a nice big blanket for my grandmother and some new sheets and pillows for everyone's bed. The line was long to check out, but everyone at Target was super friendly and accomodating. We then got our first Starbucks drinks, and went to Old Navy, where I got every one jeans and puffy vests (including skinny jeans for Big Al that may be the cutest things ever). After that, I was really dragging because of my lack of any meaningful sleep, and thought about turning around to go home, but Gabby started telling me about people at school, and I got tickled about it all, and we drove on to the mall, where I took part in the 50% off sale at Gap. That, ya'll, was amazing. I got a pair of Long and Leans, a pair of Modern Bootcuts, a tweed moto jacket, and a striped shirt that I am currently wearing. I got Alice a little tulle skirt and some of their play leggings and tees, which hold up very well and are super cute. I also snagged Gab a cardigan for Christmas by doing a little hiding game with my jeans. We also went to Bath and Body Works for Chinese Christmas gifts for my grandmother's house and my work and then to Justice, where I got Gab some other goodies and got a $25 gift card for coming out early! Score! We were immensely proud of ourselves. We stopped at Panera on the way home and got bagel sandwiches and then got Starbucks once more and drove home. Super fun, and we got a lot of great stuff for not a lot of dinero. Just the way I like it!
When we returned at around 10:00, I had hoped that I could take a little nap, but Sam wanted to decorate for Christmas, so that is what I did. I pulled out everything but the ornaments for the tree (we will get that next weekend) and we put up stuff and cleaned and listened to Christmas carols. We ate leftovers and just generally had a good day. Matt got home from work, and was pleased to show me that he had gone Black Friday shopping for the first time, and had gotten a $10 coat at Old Navy and two video games for $10 at GameStop. The pull of the Black Friday cannot be ignored....
On Saturday, we went up to my mother in law's for Thanksgiving dinner. I made (PW's) pecan pie with whiskey maple cream sauce. It was great, even though I am not a huge fan of pecan pie. We sat around and talked to my in laws for a while, and then came back home. Matt passed out because he had had early mornings at work the last two days, so I stayed up with Al and read magazines and watched Sleeping with the Enemy on Lifetime. My first time seeing that. I can't believe that I've made it this long.
On Sunday, we packed the kids off to stay at my mother in law's and Matt and I went out to eat lunch. We both are expecting a crazy week this week, and we felt we needed some time to decompress before we got started. We had lunch and then came home and watched shows on the TiVo and just hung out together and talked. We had a great time. The kids came home and I finished up laundry and then read magazines in bed until I passed out.
How was your holiday weekend? Any shopping? I just bought Alice a dress at The Children's Place online because you can stack their 25% off Cyber Monday coupon with free shipping (BOO YA!) and I bought a gift for my mom at LL Bean. I was so looking forward to purchasing the Sloan velvet trousers from BR with any kind of CM deal, but BR and Gap are not offering one. WTF, Gap?!?! I am not spending $110 on a pair of velvet trousers that I am only going to wear 3 months out of the year, so I am left pondering if I should get some from Ann Taylor that are not the ones I want exactly and that I am clueless about length in or if I should try to wait and see if these go on any kind of sale. I can't wait too long, though, because our Christmas party is December 16. So it is a conundrum. And I'm kind of pissed off about it. If Gap is still struggling financially, they should know that not doing anything for Cyber Monday is not helping a bit. Even J. Crew has a deal.... Sigh.
I am having a week of 12-14 hour workdays this week, so posting may be spotty at times. Or it won't be. We are hosting a conference here, and I'm still wondering what it is actually going to be like. We'll see, I guess.
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