new traditions...

We celebrated Thanksgiving a whole week early. There were 35 of us at my parents house...it was a FULL house..lots of chatter, lots of turkey...too many pies to count! It felt just like Thanksgiving. In fact many times throughout the night I kept thinking, "we need to pick up a paper to look at the Black Friday ads.." but nope..that's a whole week away.

So when it came time for the actual Thanksgiving day...well, we just pulled out left overs from the fridge, put in a Christmas movie and had a low key evening full of conversation and festivities. It was nice to sleep in and know that the day was going to be very low key.

My mom and I went to Walmart that night. They opened up at midnight for their sales. I thought we had plenty of time to get there and get in line, but when we showed up there were only about 10 parking spaces left in the HUGE parking lot. "Uh, oh!" I thought...I only wanted a few items and I'm pretty sure they have limited supplies. My mom and I quickly parted ways as we walked into the store. I found my queen sheet set and then headed to the mens shirts. My mom made a bee line right for the DVD section. We didn't have time to find a loose cart, but that actually worked in our favor. We were able to wiggle our way through crowds, grab what we wanted, and wiggle our way out.

A half hour later we were out the door feeling good about our deals. My mom was on such a shopping high she decided to pull an all nighter and head to Kohls, Target and Freddies! Little C was at home sleeping and I knew she would be up in a few short hours, so I opted out of the other stores. Nate and my dad got up for BFR2 (Black Friday round 2). At 4am, they headed out to the Fred Meyer sock sale. The line was longer than they had ever seen it in years past. FM employees were saying the same thing. But they both made it in there and got their sock supply for the year. Nate only bought a pair of socks. I think the cashier took a double take when he pulled up with just one pair. =) That's my husband....he doesn't get too caught up in the craziness of it all.

So now we're cutting down a christmas tree and decorating it in a whimsey theme. I think "White Christmas" and cider are on the docket for tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Poof! It's gone!

I successfully performed a magic trick on myself! Yesterday, I pulled out my debit card and Drivers License and put them in my bag. I then took a 10 minute walk to the post office, opened my bag to get my debit card...and POOF! it was gone!

I backtracked my exact same route 3 times....no sign of them.

I racked through my entire house! ....no sign of them.

So I finally put a stop to my cards....and now to get new ones. I will probably find them in the freezer or something like that....

bummer.

American Flyer trains

Anyone know anything about American Flyer trains? I hear they're good ones...

mushroom

Just outside our house we found these very colorful mushrooms. I'm not sure what kind they are...and I'm certainly NOT going to try to eat them. Although it does look like something tried to eat one of them. I heard through the grapevine that this is a great year for the mushrooms. If you're a mushroom hunter I'm sure you're enjoying the season of plenty!

There are mushroom hunters. I remember when we worked at Quaker Hill Camp and Conference Center there was a group who would retreat there to discuss mushrooms. It was a mushroom club. They took hours during the day to walk the back 40 and hunt mushrooms. In the evenings they would bring their loot out into the dining hall and examine the various kinds. Now this is a hobby that you would want to be very accurate with. =) No mistakes in eating these!

Date night

Friday night was date night. Charlotte was present, but sleeping mostly. We ended up watching a movie from Redbox - Just Wright. It's a basketball love story with Queen Latifa. I think Queen L and I could be friends in real life. She's pretty down to earth....or so I imagine.

I didn't want to cook...either did Nate, so we did the Hot-n-ready pizza at Little Ceasars. When I walked in I noticed the line was unusually long. The manager was at the register explaining to each person that one of their cooks decided not to show up. Even the owner, who just happened to stop by to drop off cheese, was hauled into the back to make pizzas. I was oddly itching to get back there myself and roll out some dough. It's enjoyable to be at home with Charlotte, I also enjoy a little bit of a crazy routine job. In fact, I remember that some of my favorite days working at the restaurant were game days for OSU. We would have order after order slapped up on our counter. It would be hours before I could get away to even use the restroom! But those were fun times. I wouldn't want to do that every day, but it was a fun challenge.

Back to date night. We got halfway through the movie and Charlotte woke up. A 2 hour intermission hanging out with Charlotte...then off to finish the movie.

She is definitely becoming more interactive now. She laughs more often and shoots off smiles regularly. She enjoys trying out different sounds. Last week she discovered her tongue and likes to hang on to it while she talks. Sometimes she crams her whole fist in her mouth....and then accidentally gags herself with her fingers. Everything she holds goes in her mouth. I'm going to have to pay more attention to those things. =)

Halloween

Charlotte sitting with her friends

eBay update

Yesterday all 8 of my auctions closed. I ended up getting a few last minute bids under the door before it ended. Four of my auctions sold!!! Woo hoo! Now off to the post office.