Thanksgiving '09!

Thanksgiving 2009 has come and gone, and in the end, I thought it was pretty great. We trekked up to my parent’s house early Thursday morning – just in time to miss out on most of the cooking. Shucks!


My mother’s turkey and stuffing and potatoes and asparagus and cranberry jelly were all fantastic – even Charlie had seconds on the stuffing! The only thing I turn my nose up at is the giblet gravy, which I don’t think my mom should take personally. There are plenty of people in the world that would welcome my dish of fresh-from-a-package gravy mix after hearing the words “giblet” and “gravy” used together. Nobody in my family, of course, but plenty of people!  Right?

After the delicious dinner, we all did the usual laying around and pie eating that follows. Between pumpkin, cherry and chocolate cream, we were absolutely STUFFED.

On Friday morning, my mom and I did our usual participating in the Black Friday events. What amuses me every year is how many people out there are so anti-Black Friday. They seem to think that all of us are as nutty as the people that camp out in tents all night, or who are pushing and shoving their way into a store to get one of only 10 items marked down.

Those descriptions do NOT fit my mother and me. Over the last seven or eight years we’ve perfected our game.

First of all, we typically don’t get up that morning at any special time. This year I simply told Mom, “When you wake up, knock on my door.” This year that meant a departure time of 6:30 a.m. The few times we’ve hit a store at its opening, there has rarely been a crowd, and it’s never been a store where the deals make people foam at the mouth. We’ve gotten our fair share of early shopper giveaways, most of which include the tiny Mickey and Minnie snow globes from JC Penny’s, but what we’re really interested in are the sales.

This year we limited our stores to one: Target. Nearly everything my kids have asked for this Christmas can be purchased there, and some of it was even on sale. The highlight was that I spent just over $100, thereby earning a $10 gift card, which I then used to run back in and buy the last item on Charlie’s wish list. I’m actually done shopping for my kids! That’s a pretty nice feeling, though I confess they’re the easiest to shop for. I have to physically stop myself from over-buying for them.

Now to figure out what gift will be from Santa…