Family, Friends, Food & Long Weekend

I love this time of year... the hustle and bustle, gathering with family & friends, cooking, shopping, the lights... you name it, I *heart* it!

• Wednesday spent the evening with the Princes downtown viewing the lighting of the Santa & Reindeer on the bank building along with the big lighted wreath on another building. Then we walked several more blocks and went to view a festival of decorated trees. These just aren't any trees - these are over the top decorated by local people/groups and sponsored by another group. Each local sports team had a tree decorated and their mascots were there to kick off the event. Santa & Mrs. Claus were a hit. The youngest Prince saw Santa and gave him a small list. ~wink, wink~ We ended the night with dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. The Princes love this place if only for the peanuts! lol
• Thursday was a lazy start to the day since we were heading to Thanksgiving lunch. Yummy made an awesome salad with pork belly croutons while I roasted brussels sprouts and topped with a hazelnut & sage butter with a hint of honey. We spent a nice afternoon with family having good food & plenty of wine. ;-)
• I attempted to hit the black Friday sales at midnight at the local Toys 'r Us but the line when I got to the store was 300+ people. No kidding! The store called the local police for crowd control because people were lining up on both sides of the store. The sales weren't that sensational for me to fight this angry mob (err... I mean crowd). So, back home I went to bed.
• I did go out Friday but not until 4 hours after the stores opened. I did get some good deals and finished my shopping for the princes. WooHoo!!
• Friday night was spent with the Princes and Yummy playing board games. Connect 4 was a huge hit along with Uno Attack.
• Today's been the usual laundry, cleaning in preparation for the big tree decorating tomorrow.
• Looking forward to tomorrow afternoon when I get to see my mom. She's moving back!!! I'm so excited because sometimes you just need your mom. :)

Post Thanksgiving

An after Thanksgiving recap... I was so excited to get out of school on Wednesday. Nothing like having 4 days off in a row to do absolutely nothing. I adore vacations! Wednesday night was spent getting a manicure and pedicure. Just some 'me' time and how I needed that after the past week at school but we'll save that for another post. ~wink~

Thursday was a rather lazy day. This holiday was spent with Yummy and his family. My mom recently moved to Connecticut to be closer to my brother and his ever growing family. My sister lives on the other side of the state with her boyfriend and was doing her thing with his family. So, this left just Yummy and I together since the Princes were at their sperm donors for the holiday weekend. This year there was no cooking on this end. Yummy and I spent the feast at his cousin's house. They did all the cooking, clean up and god, how nice that is not to have a messy kitchen and be chained to the stove for hours! The down-side... no left overs for the next day! Even without left overs, we survived the holiday with family. Afterwards, we went back home and I perused the black Friday ads to make my list and check it twice. I *love* going through the ads and seeing all the stuff on sale. There were some really good deals this year on large electronics. Just wish I would have had the money because a flat screen would be just grand in our living room!

Black Friday... I was up at 4 a.m. to get to Wal-mart for some silly Cabbage Patch dolls our nieces and a Hot Wheels City for the youngest Prince. After getting yelled at by a crabby shopper things were good. Checked out and headed to Meijers to pick up the things for the Princes that Wal-Mart wouldn't ad match for me. The parking lot was full but the store was like a normal shopping day - no lines at checkouts, room to walk through the aisles. The last must stop was Target for a few items. After checking out here, I was pretty much done for the ole shopping list! How exciting!

Not wanting to head home quite yet, I headed to the outside mall and did a few more stops but spent most of my time in Barnes & Noble just drinking Starbucks and leafing through magazines and reading. I love when I can do this - no kids pulling me in all directions. Just more 'me' time.

Friday night Yummy and I went to his niece's birthday party and spent more time with the family. After a couple hours here, Yummy was ready to go and so was I. We went back home and watched some tv and headed to bed. I was exhausted after the day of shopping.

Saturday I spent the day decorating the house for Christmas while Yummy went back to work. I put up my new Christmas village. I love it! I had always wanted one but EH would not let me have one. He said it was a waste of money to have village house sitting around collecting dust and we had no place to put them. I just adore these with their old days gone by feel. So when I was out I picked up a few pieces... my dream home in the country and the town starting with the canine shop and a bakery. ~smiling~ Yummy thought they were great and this is just another reason that I'm with him! ~wink~ All the decorations are up except for the ornaments on the tree. This is waiting for the Princes to come home today. But, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care and sugar plums will be dancing in the Princes' heads soon as they wait for St. Nick.

I'm off now to shovel the driveway... we FINALLY have snow! In 3 hours this morning, we got a few inches. It's so pretty. The backyard now looks like a tornado hit it as Lucy ran and played when I let her out. I love this time of year (ok, minus the cold!)!