Thanksgiving, then Black Friday, then Christmas

It's the most wonderful time of the year... Happy Holidays everyone!

Last week was Thanksgiving. And it was wonderful! I got up early and made some desserts - Pumpkin Pie Bars and Pumpkin Pie. (They were both delicious!) Then I started on the big item - our turkey!

I brushed it with butter and olive oil, put in a bag and put it in the roaster (unstuffed) for almost 3 hours. It was so moist and so delicious! This was followed up by the preparation of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed yams, whole cranberry sauce and biscuits. Yummy!!!

It went so well, I was able to take a nap at 3 pm until 5 pm. It was a wonderful day.

And I stayed up that night until 1:30 am. Then I woke up 2 and a half hours later to go shopping on Black Friday. Now I've never done this before - either we've been completely broke or I've been working. This year we're only semi-broke and neither of us are working. So away we went to shop for some deals.

Black Friday was a complete nightmare at Wal-mart. People were animals! They were running and pushing and just plain rude. I got nailed in the head with a Barbie car, I had my fingers pinched in between my cart and some ladies' ass and I got told by several people to give them some product that was "blocking" them from getting on their own. Aceholes.

But I did end up getting some deals there. Waited for an hour in line to check out, but finally made it out of there. We moseyed on over to Meijer afterward, and it was soo much nicer. The line was not even an issue, there were plenty of items and it was just a gentle let down from the insanity that was Wal-mart.

After both stores, we went and grabbed some breakfast, then headed on home. Katherine slept for 5 hours. I wrapped presents and then took a nap. I was intending to set up the Christmas tree that day before Nathan had to go to his mom's, but she called and rearranged the trade time, leaving us with no time to decorate. So I waited until yesterday to put up the tree and start decorating. Saturday I just cleaned out Katherine's toys and made room for the tree. Here is the before photo:

Yes, those are the gifts that I bought on Friday and weeks previous. I haven't purchased all of the gifts yet, but I'm working on it. Next week I should be able to find the rest of my gifts and be done with it!

So anyway, yesterday, while Jonathan went to get Nathan, Katherine and I put up the Christmas tree. We decorated, lit and had the angel up by the time the guys got home. And it's pretty good looking, even though we have yet to put the bows and the garland on it yet. Here's what it looks like:Yes, Katherine's wearing a dress. This is the only picture I can publish, since the rest of them, and the video, she kept flashing her underwear... that's my girl.

So Christmas is coming up. In addition to buying for my immediate family, I also buy for my parents, my in-laws, my siblings who keep in touch and for the names we drew for the Slimmen Christmas. So far, I've got nothing done except for Katherine, Bill, Steven and Grandpa Slimmen. While I only have one gift left to purchase for the rest of them, I'm nervous that I won't have enough money to drive them their gifts! =) No bother, it will work out.

So I"m off to look at my pretty Christmas light and hang out with the boys, watching CSI reruns. Fun stuff!