This year was the first year that Reagan and I have celebrated Thanksgiving in our home, leaving me responsible for cooking:) I was not looking forward to being away from my parents but the idea of not having to drive 6-8 hrs to see my parents or Reagan's dad was actually quite nice. I tried to prepare as much in advance as possible so that my stress level on Thanksgiving would remain at a minimal so I could enjoy the day! I looked up all the necessary recipes ahead of time and had prepped what I could the night before. Without thinking of black friday I stayed up until almost 1:30 on Thanksgiving Eve getting everything in order. It definitely paid off the next day when I could spend some much needed family time with Hudson and Reagan rather than spending the ENTIRE day in the kitchen.
Dinner ended up only being about 20 minutes behind the estimated time of eating. We had turkey, which was absolutely moist and delicious, stuffing (homemade, not the box kind), green bean casserole, corn casserole, roles, turkey gravy, and brown gravy. Reagan's sister brother in law came over, along with his mother and step dad, and his aunt came to visit later in the evening. Reagan's sister and I had made executive decisions that we would not have cranberry sauce or sweet potatoes because neither one of us or our husbands likes those traditional Thanksgiving items:) I know must of you think this is probably creating Thanksgiving blasphemy (spelling?) but oh well! At the end of the evening everyone was stuffed and had raved about how good the food was, this may have just been a nice thing to say since it was my first time doing Thanksgiving dinner solo but none the less the compliments were much appreciated!
After dinner Evan and Leigh Cooper came by so that Leigh and I could map out our attack for the Black Friday! Even if I do not have anything specific to buy this is my most favority day of the year to go shopping. I know that the majority of people think that I am crazy but for some reason I get a thrill out of deal seeking and the chaos of opening season for Christmas shopping! Leigh and I wrote out all of the places we wanted to go along with the specific things we were looking for at each location and decided that we would head to Target in BA at 3:10 to be there when they opened at 4:00. As I was getting ready to finally get a couple hours of sleep before hitting the stores hard the next day I got a text from another friend Alicia Sloat asking if I was going to brave the crowds the next day. I informed her Leigh and I had planned on leaving at 3:10 and that if she wanted to she was more than welcome to join us. To my pleasant surprise she agreed and then proceeded to let us know that she was a VIRGIN to black Friday shopping!!! That is correct, Leigh and I got to break Alicia into the utter chaos and delirious conversation of black Friday shopping:)
We actually started out for Tulsa on time! That was the first big accomplishment of the day next to actually getting up on time for me at 2:30 after not getting into bed until almost 11 (keep in mind that I only had 4.5-5 hrs of sleep the night before as well) We got to Target right as they were opening their doors, we had to make a pit stop for donuts and caffeine at quik trip before we went to Target. The line was out the door but we steadily got to walk inside without having to wait for hours in the cold. We got in the store and there were no carts left but we did find all of our goals we were looking for at Target, score! Then we started the ridiculous 1 to 1.5 wait in the check out line. Alicia I must say really came through at Target, she spotted the last couple play doh specials I was looking for and I snagged the last two out of three and she also spotted Leigh's mega blocks:) She is definitley going to be a pro by next year when we will get to add two hopefully three children to the shopping lists between the three of us! We got checked out at Target and headed to Wal-Mart!
We found what we all wanted or needed at Wal-Mart very quickly and moved on to Babies R Us. This was a successful stop as well. The bouncer I was needing for Clayton, thanks to Mandi Butler for letting me know two days prior to black Friday, was on sale for about 25 off so I went and purchased that along with another changing pad cover. Leigh found Remington another christmas present and Alicia scored some ADORABLE little girl clothes for miss Brylee (hope I spelt her name right). By the time we left Babies R Us we already had managed to fill the entire back of Leigh's car and were able to start the piling on of the shopping bags. The next stop was breakfast:) We drove through Braums, no time to go in and eat until the madness of black Friday shopping is done! Then we headed on to the JCPenney home store where Alicia and Leigh grabbed some towels for an amazing deal. I was too indecisive on what color would go with red so walked out empty handed.
The next stop was Toys R Us, unfortunately since they had been open since 10:00 pm the night before everything that I was needing to get there was already gone, which I expected so I didn't have high expectations. Our next stop was to the fabric store so that the man rooms curtains at the Coopers could be made and hung:) I will say this I NEVER knew so many people could be so interested in buying twenty different kinds of fabrics at once......thank goodness there was a lady doing an "express lane" cutting! We then headed over to the mall. This was where the majority of my financial damage was done. We hit up Dillards, JCPenney, Bath and Body Works, Christopher Banks (I think, my mind is too exhausted to remember the name), Hallmark, Foot Locker, Gap, Eskimo Joes, Journey and I believe that was it. After about an hour and a half at the mall we headed on to the Carter's store. We found exactly what we were looking for and were ready to finally get some REAL food. We ended up deciding on Olive Garden, which once we all sat down and got full tummies we were definitely ready to try to make it home without falling asleep so we could take naps!
We had decided at lunch that we would talk later in the day and decide if we wanted to get together for dinner that evening. I came home and crashed at by 2:00 pm and did not wake up until about 4:40 pm. Then i realized I only had an hour and a half to wrap all of Reagan's gifts until he got home. I quickly went to wrapping and gave my fellow shoppers an invite for dinner. To my TOTAL surprise Alicia had not been to sleep yet and politely declined which I completely understand. Leigh and I forgot to tell her that at least a 2 hr minimum nap is required to keep functioning well after Black Friday shopping:) Then we decided that breakfast for dinner would be held at the Coopers household. After cooking dinner and eating I decided to attempt to help Leigh in finishing putting her tree together in preparation for the class party at her house the next weekend. She found my fluffing skills to be insane! Actually she couldn't believe I spent that much time fluffing the tree. Then we were on to the lights which ended up ending the entire project due to after being totally put on the tree the strand ended with a piece that needed to be plugged into and could not plug into the outlet in the wall:)
Today was one of the most fun days I have had in a long time and I thoroughly enjoyed my partners in crime. I am hoping that we have maybe started a crazy little tradition and that our virgin shopper Alicia will join us next year again! Although next year we must make her promise to go home and take a nap so the dinner time in the evening can be complete:) Thanks for the morning/day out girls!
