Black Friday, 2008

Typically on the day after Thanksgiving Ciera and I head out with my MIL and SIL around 4am to do some shopping. We then have breakfast around 7 and do a little more shopping or head home (Ciera has only come with us the previous 2 years now that she's old enough to 'keep a secret'). This year I had decided I would have to modify my shopping plan as I knew I wouldn't have the endurance to hit everywhere. I figured I could put in a couple of hours and then do breakfast and call it a morning. My MIL was not feeling well this year, so she opted out, which was totally understandable. There were a couple of stores that I could pick up something for myself and only a few that had anything worth going out early to get for someone else. After putting the kids to bed Brian and I decided what gifts we wanted to buy for Logan and the plan was formulated. When Ciera found out that I wasn't really 'shopping' I was running in to get 1 thing here or there, she opted to sleep in. I did promise to take her out to a few 'shopping' stores later in the day and that we'd have breakfast out still.

At 4:15 the alarm went off and Brian and I took a quick shower before heading out to Big 5 Sporting Goods. I have never once taken a shower before heading out, that's generally my 'after shopping treat'. It really did feel good to take the extra few minutes to just let the hot water run down your back. So at 4:55 we head to Roseville (about a 15 minute drive). We arrive at 5:15, the store is not supposed to be open until 5:30, but the doors are wide open and there are people inside shopping. We go in, buy our 2 items and get ready to load it into the emptied out van. The item is too large to fit in the van! So it's decided that we can put a 250lb box on the top of my beautiful van and drive really slow all the way home. Brian and I are not real 'fix-y' people and were both a tad nervous about this. The guy at Big 5 explained how to tie the rope so that it would support the box and not make it move, but they could not do it for us. So we head out using the back roads going 20 mph the entire trip. A 15 minute drive took us 1 hour at this drastically reduced speed. But there wasn't much traffic, no one honked at us and the box is now safely tucked away for Christmas.

During the drive home the babies were incredibly excited. There was so much movement and twitching. I actually gasped out loud and one of little girls movements!

So we get home, unload the box and of course have to reorganize the garage some in the process (I don't believe Brian felt as strongly about reorganizing, but he helped out and didn't complain). Around 7:30 we headed back to bed. This summer I put blackout liners on our curtains, so we were both able to fall back asleep and only woke at noon. Since Ciera was still sleeping it was decided that we'd skip breakfast and save it for Sunday morning.

The rest of the day was nice and relaxing. I think we spent most of the early afternoon in bed watching TV while snuggled under the blanket (We have not turned on the heater yet, I think it's quite comfortable still and the rest of the family may just need to put on some socks). Around 3:30 Ciera and I headed back to Roseville for some shopping/looking. We got some jeans at Old Navy and Ciera got to pick out which scents she wants from Bath and Body Works. We went to Joann Fabrics to get some blackout liner for Logan's window and I found the 'perfect' frame for above our piano at 60% off. We then picked up some soda at Winco. Another holiday 'special' flavor that is to die for, Pomegranate 7-Up! We stumbled upon this last year around Christmas and loved it. We were so disappointed when we couldn't find it anywhere else. It's finally back and it's definitely worth trying. We will be stocking up when we can find it anywhere with more than 1 bottle. We stopped by Sam's for a new razor for Ciera and some dinner. The hot dog did not agree with me though and I was definitely wishing I'd gotten the pizza. Our final stop was Target in town. Apparently everyone thought Target at 7 was a great idea. We didn't leave until 8:30, there was someone to chat with around every aisle.

We finally get home and Brian and Logan picked up a Little Caesar's pizza for dinner. At 9 we put in The Incredible Hulk, not horrible but it was difficult to hear what was being said 50% of the time. We had some cocoa and snuggled under the blankets, then it was time for bed (and blog updating if you pay attention to details like that).

I typically squeeze putting up the tree into this day. But this year I went ahead and assembled the tree on Tuesday so that I didn't try to do to much after Thanksgiving. I didn't put on ornaments nor have we turned on the lights, as it's not supposed to go up until the day after Thanksgiving-Brian was shocked to find out that there are rules about these things. I was appalled to see all the houses with lights ON Wednesday night. There are RULES for a reason!!

Saturday will be spent decorating the tree and putting out the rest of the Christmas stuff. We have some laundry and dishes to do as well. It should still be a fairly restful day.