This year we are having Thanksgiving with my parents. My brother's family is coming as well. I am excited to spend this time together. My dad spends many hours preparing a wonderful dinner. Our family's typical Thanksgiving menu consists of: Turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, macaroni & cheese, cranberry sauce, and other various foods and snack foods. Dad keeps us WELL FED and it is SO yummy. The girls of the family usually at some point during the day discuss our Black Friday shopping strategy which consists of: what time to get up, what stores to go to, and searching through the sales fliers for deals and coupons to use. This is one of my most favorite parts of Thanksgiving. I love having this tradition with my mom, and this year my sister-in-law is planning on coming as well. We love waking up early and getting out there before the sun is up with all the other crazies! We know to steer clear of places like Best Buy, Radio Shack, and Toys R Us. Those are the places that you might get trampled or in a fight over things. (It is pretty sad the way some people act on what is supposed to be a fun and festive day...but that topic is for another post.) I already have my shopping list ready and categorized into what I need to get from what stores. I LOVE giving gifts to people. It is going to be especially hard this year as we are trying to budget wisely and be good stewards of our money. Christmas is not about things, but it is nice to show people you love them by picking out things that you know they will like. This year I am going to attempt to remember my camera and take pictures of our Black Friday experience. Although we do have to be careful. A few years ago when we were up in Illinois with my dad's extended family, all the girls went shopping and took a picture of us and all our loot after. Well my sneaky DAD got a hold of the camera and zoomed and cropped the picture and discovered some of the gifts that my mom had gotten him. What a sneak. If you think your kids are bad about sneaking and trying to figure out what they got... you need to meet my dad! :) And he has a knack for guessing exactly what you got him... he is right 99% of the time. Even if it is something random and you think you got him fooled, he's not. One year my mom packed his gift in a box, wrapped that box in another box, and that box in another box... repeated that several times and HE STILL GUESSED WHAT IT WAS! Goober.
I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR! Feel free to share your stories and traditions, I would love to hear!
2 comments:
the only year we fooled Lee was the year we got him a weed-eater, Cheri was about 4 and could NOT keep a secret, so Michael & I told her it was a trolling motor (same shaped box) and he had just gotten a bass boat and wanted a trolling motor... and yep she told him!! Imagine how disappointed he was that he had to work instead of play (he did get the trolling motor later)
I LOVE this tradition with Cheri as well... it's a ton of fun with Lee's sis Lin & Niece Tina too, sad we can't be with them this year
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