A Nice Long Holiday Weekend

Before I run down our Thanksgiving weekend, I thought I'd let you know that Tuesday and Wednesday went really well watching Brooke. Tuesday was the best day and she only fussed a little and took naps for me. Wednesday wasn't as good as Tuesday, but far better than Monday so I can't complain. She was pretty good for me, and I was even able to get a few things done during the day. Evan didn't have school on Wednesday so he was home all day. It was me and three kids all day long, which could have made for a long day, but actually ended up not being too bad. Emmaline took her nap for me and Evan was a great help with Brooke. He even read some books to her which was really sweet. It was a joy to watch Brooke for Angie, and I look forward to maybe watching her down the road sometime.

With Thanksgiving on Thursday and having lots to do, I prepared some of the Thanksgiving dishes ahead of time. On Tuesday I made pumpkin bars which I got the recipe from my friend Ann's blog. On Wednesday I made my sweet potato casserole. I figured the more I got out of the way before Thursday, the less I'd have to do on Thanksgiving. I will be posting the recipes soon because they were both fantastic! Great additions to Thanksgiving dinner or to just make whenever.

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house with my mom, sister, and my niece. My mom bought the turkey and we all contributed some of the side dishes. I prepared the turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin bars. My sister made green bean casserole, and my mom made the stuffing. It was my first time cooking a turkey all by myself and having to clean the "gross parts" out of the turkey. I made Greg take the neck out because it was just a little too gross for me. I stuffed the turkey with cranberries, an orange, and an apple and then basted it with olive oil. It turned out pretty good, as did all the side dishes. Dinner was tasty and we were definitely stuffed by the end of the meal. Thanks to my mom and sister for all they contributed to help cut back on all the work that goes into making a Thanksgiving meal.

Thursday night we just chilled for the most part. Greg, my sister, and I did make a quick run to Meijer that night to check out a few deals they had for their Thanksgiving sale. We then came home to plan our Black Friday shopping. I've been Black Friday shopping for many years now. I don't even know how long I've been doing it, but I do remember the days when my mom, sister, and I used to go out on Black Friday with my niece Kaitlyn when she was a baby. She's now 14 so it's been at least that long! It's kind of a tradition and while Black Friday seems to keep getting crazier and crazier and isn't like it used to be, I keep getting suckered into going. Now stores are opening earlier and earlier (some even on Thanksgiving night), and I find myself saying I'm not going out next year and then I still end up going.

This year we hit Walmart at midnight and it was of course a madhouse. The "hot" items like electronics weren't available until 5am, but what I really wanted was a Shark Steam Cleaner for the hardwood floors which I was able to get so I was very happy! We got a few other items and then stopped by home to drop them off before we headed out Okemos to hit the other Walmart which wasn't opening until 5am and Target at 4am. We took two cars and my mom and Kaite camped out at Walmart while my sister and I were going to head over to Old Navy and Target. Kaite was such a trooper and sat in line in the cold in her chair bundled in blankets. My mom traded off with her a few times so she could warm up. We had heard that Old Navy was supposed to open at midnight, but when we got there we found out they weren't opening until 4am. We decided to skip waiting there and head over to Target. The line was super long, and I was about to wait in it because I knew the "hot" items I wanted weren't going to be there by the time I got in. So my sister and I camped out in the car and decided we'd just go in after the line was all in. Well 4am rolled around and still at 4:20am the line was still feeding into the store. We decided to skip Target at that point because even if we went in and got some of the items we wanted we wouldn't be checked out in time to get back to Walmart at 5am. We made a McD's stop to pick up and early breakfast for all of us and took it back to Walmart. By the time everyone ate their breakfast and Kaite packed up her chair and blankets there was only about five minutes left to wait for the store to open. 5am struck, the doors opened, and everyone was off to find their bargains. My sister and I got the t.v.'s we wanted and Kaite got her new laptop. We also got a few other things like my hand mixer I missed out on at the first Walmart. After we finished there we headed back over to Target and ended up getting the "non-hot" items we wanted and got through the checkout in pretty good time. All in all it was a successful Black Friday shopping experience! The early morning shopping paid off!

We got home around 6:45am and I ended up only sleeping about two hours before I heard the garbage truck going through the neighborhood and of course Emmaline got up. Late morning we decided to make an impromptu trip to Trader Joe's and Home Goods. Greg needed to go to the camera store in GR so he and Evan went there and the girls went shopping. We stopped in Howell for lunch at Tomato Bros. (which is super yummy if you're ever in the area), then hit TJ's at 8-mile. On our way back to Home Goods in Brighton, we decided to make a detour and head to Ann Arbor to hit that TJ's. The first TJ's was out of the chicken tamales which was one of the items we went for. Thankfully the second TJ's had them since we made the trek there. On the way back we hit Home Goods, but didn't find what I was looking for. Bummer. Then we headed home and got back around 5:30pm. It was a long day and all on about two hours of sleep. A big thanks to my mom for driving there and back and for lunch at Tomato Bros. Friday night my mom and the kids made Christmas cut out cookies which is a tradition. This was the only time we had to do it before Christmas and the kids had fun making them.

I've got more to share about Saturday and Sunday, but I shall save that until my next post as it's late and I should get to bed. We've got a full week this week which means early mornings off to school! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and long weekend!