Thanksgiving was good. I tried to get a really small turkey this year, because there's only the six of us, but the smallest I could find was a thirteen pounder. We still have lots of leftovers, but that's okay, because I haven't cooked since Thursday. I will have to make dinner tonight, on account of everyone being sick of turkey and potatoes. Plus, all the green beans and asparagus are gone. (My kids are really into roasted asparagus these days. Next idea: get them hooked on artichokes.)
Meanwhile, we didn't need to go out on Black Friday, but the kids wanted to go somewhere, so we looked up where the closest mall was, and decided to go people watching. Sadly, we went on Friday afternoon, and I'm pretty sure all the crazy people were gone by then. It wasn't even busy. On the plus side, there was no line to see Santa Claus, so we got to have a nice long chat with him. I don't have any photographic evidence of this, because I refuse to pay the ransom fee for speaking to the gent.
We also got to see what kinds of things people were oohing and ahhing over, and I took mental notes for when we break into teams to go shopping for each other. I have to take another vote about what kind of gifts we're doing this year first, though. We've always done stocking stuffer (read: small) gifts for everyone, but we might try drawing names instead. The last vote was evenly split. It's a tough decision, because some people want more gifts, and some people want more expensive gifts. (And by expensive, I mean $10 or less. Because $10 times four is $40, and that's all I'm willing to spend... besides, have you seen all the awesome things you can get for under $10?)
And if they decide to get stocking stuffers, the limit is still $10 per child. As in, they have $10 to get six gifts. It's great, because we get pens and pencils and chapstick and gum and socks and all sorts of cool stuff.
We also stopped at GameStop for Thaddeus. His birthday is on Monday, and we were going to get him a new game. But THEN we remembered that we can get gently used games for super discounted prices at GameStop. So we let him pick out a game, but since it was "black Friday", and they had all sorts of deals and specials, we ended up getting six. (He didn't pick all of them.) Because two were free. And it still cost less than the price of a new game.
Of course, the other children wanted Blayne to pick out a game for her birthday, but I said "No" because I already have her present.
And now, it's Saturday, and the kids are playing games, and everyone's happy. I'm working on some Primary stuff, because tomorrow is the first, which means I need to get the newsletter ready, and update the primary bulletin board, and all that good stuff. Plus, I need to teach the kids a new song. They'll be singing in sacrament meeting for Christmas. ;)
