Thanksgiving was really nice. We had (as usual) 2 dinners, one with my family, one with Nelson's family. My mom and dad came over on the actual day and mom and I split up the responsibilities of cooking the big meal, which was GREAT! I was in charge of the turkey, rice, jello salad, green veggie (broccoli), mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, and.....I think that was it. Mom did the sweet potatoes, stuffing, and gravy. Then there were those other quick things that just come out of a can. At our house, that includes olives and cranberry sauce. I do the turkey in the crock pot (just the breast, actually), so it actually was a really easy, laid back preparation. We had dinner, the men watched football, the ladies looked through Black Friday ads and chatted in the kitchen. (and the men did the dishes, of course.) Saturday was spent in Salem with Nelson's family, eating another big and delicious meal. And, I didn't have to cook a thing!! I was going to bring a side dish, but Nelson had this idea that he wanted to try to make a new recipe he found, so he made a sweet potato casserole, leaving me with nothing, AWESOME!! Kalaya ate a LOT at both meals this year; much different from last year! She especially liked mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, broccoli, cranberry sauce and stuffing and mommy and daddy let her have a (VERY SMALL) piece of pumpkin pie at each meal, which was very exciting!
Black Friday. Yup, it's totally crazy and I understand completely why people avoid it. The last few years, my mom and I have sometimes gone out in the late morning or afternoon, to check out the sales, but avoid the crazies. Then, last year, my friend Sarah got me to go with her in the middle of the night and I got HOOKED!! Do I feel guilty about those people having to work ridiculous hours and for supporting corporate America?? Yes. Very, very much so. But, we are on a limited budget and the sales really do make a huge difference in savings. Last year I went to 5 or 6 stores, but at 7 months pregnant, not this time. I go with a plan and very strategically. This year, I decided on Toys R Us and K Mart. Toys R Us opened at 9pm on Thanksgiving (which is absolultely horrible, I agree) and I learned last year that it's pointless to get there before 2 hours after they open. (the line out the door takes that long to get through) I arrived just before 11 and got in pretty quickly, got the items I wanted and checked out @ 1am, which was exactly what I expected. Yes, it's crazy, but I got everything we wanted for Kalaya and saved 50% or more on each item, as well as the other kids on my shopping list. My make a list ahead of time, arrive with cash in hand, have back ups for each item and only go if it really is worth the savings. Last year, it was for her kitchen, this year a trampoline and some other toys. I got up and went to K Mart @ 6, which wasn't crowded at all, had no lines and I got everything I wanted. The only bummer this year was that I did it alone, since Sarah had just had a baby 3 weeks prior.
The weekend after Thanksgiving was spent finalizing projects around the house and working in the yard, getting things ready for our Housewarming party that we had this past Saturday. Nelson has removed a LOT of weeds and been putting down mulch, it looks SO much better. We did a lot of raking as well. Nelson put the lights on the house and we did come other decorating around the house, including getting our Christmas tree! We found a great place, within a couple of miles of our house. It's a family home with 5 acres of Christmas trees behind it, all trees one price and you cut it, they tie it to your car. We'll be heading back, it was really nice!! And so close! Kalaya had a lot of fun running around and looking at the trees, even though it was COLD! She wasn't too sure about the whole tying the tree on the car part, but once we got home, she loooves having a decorated tree in the living room, especially the lights!!
Running around and having a blast!
Supervising
New word learned: Stump
1 comment:
I cannot get over how long Kalaya's hair is!! I love the pictures and it's fun, as always, to hear about your family adventures.
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