Monday, December 1, 2008

Black and White

Black Friday and White Sunday that is!

This year I did something I have never done before, I went to the mall at O'Dark-Thirty and participated in the "black Friday" craze. If you know me, you know that shopping really isn't something I am huge on doing in the first place. Sure, walking around the mall in the middle of the week is fine, especially if you have someone to grab a coffee with and chat to. But I don't really consider that "shopping". The actual act of going out, looking for things, spending lots of money...it's really not my bag. Add the holiday crowds to that, waking up before my kids, and standing in long lines and really I'd rather just stay home. BUT I am a big fan of saving money on items that I would be buying anyway.

A friend and I went to the mall on the Wednesday before Turkey Day to let our little ones play and do some pre-season shopping. But every store we went into we could tell that the items we were looking at were going to be marked down come Friday, and some of the stores we went in were even nice enough to share with us exactly what their deals would be even though they weren't marked yet. SO we made a plan that we would go bright (or not so much) and early (VERY much so) Friday morning and knock out some of our holiday list. Our Hubbies were quick to agree because that meant they got out of it, and part of the time we were gone the kids would still be snoozing. So, Ang showed up at my house at 5 and we were off.

I was fearing the WORST, but actually, the mall we went to was not bad AT ALL. There was only one store with a long line and even that wasn't too terrible. People were nice, and there wasn't any of that craziness that you hear about in some stores. I got all the stuff on my list that I was going to pick up earlier in the week, and with the exception of a few small items, I am DONE with the Christmas shopping!!! And the deals really were nice. I saved us a good deal by sucking it up and going. And really, it was kind of nice going with a friend without the kiddos. So, that is my story...

Saturday we went and picked out our tree. Usually we do a fake one because, well we have it, and living down in the south I never felt like it really got cold enough to chance bringing in a real one because they could have bugs and stuff... But this year we decided to go for a real one and we had a good time. But it was VERY cold. Here is a picture of us with our tree before we took it home. It's the one to the left of me in the picture (not ON my left - on the left side of the photo).

And last but not least...WHITE Sunday. When we woke up Sunday morning there was a small dusting of snow on the ground! This is the first time either of my little guys have ever seen snow, and the big kid was VERY excited to get out and see what it was all about. He even helped his daddy shovel the driveway (not that it really needed it). Here are a few pictures from the morning.

First Snow Angel

Not sure what to think...

Me and the big kid

After a few snow angels and shoveling off the drive it was time to get back in and get ready for church, but it was fun. It's all melted now which to me is the perfect snow. Enough for a few snowballs, but a distant memory by lunchtime!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I am very blessed to have so much to be thankful for!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awwww their first snow! how exciting, did they love it?! how fun. the Tree is very cute, i still need to put ours up and get it decorated, with the pup biting and getting getting into everything this might prove interesting but we will try. alright well...glad you saved some money on the black friday stuff, I would do it too if i had specific things to save on, but i usally dont have anything quite like that on my list. well so glad to see a good update, loved the pictures! :) bye

Anonymous said...

They are too cute, when do you get back? I feel like its been forever

Anonymous said...

Your tree is super cute by the way, but glad your back and um...can't wait to see pics of vacation and hear all about it. Hoping you had a post but your prob.s till super busy getting settled back in. did you all 4 go? I kinda forget the details, but let me know how it went.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments! I love to hear from you, and I see that you read all the posts from when you were gone MIA!! haha. Awesome to hear from you and I hope I didn't bore you too much! but really great to hear from you and see your back in action online!