Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that each of you had a blessed Thanksgiving day.

Ours was really good considering that I just wasn't sure how we were all going to feel about it. 

We started the day off by getting up and heading out to play in the snow!

We are very blessed to live in such a beautiful place. It was sunny here at the house and we only had to drive for about 20 minutes to find some snow. It's nice to have the option of living so close to the snow...not in THE SNOW. LOL.

Anyhow- we stopped at Ski Bowl since they aren't open yet and had a blast playing and trekin' thru the snow.

 I had set my coffee down for just a few to take some pictures and Griff scooped it right up and drank it all down...the boy loved my white chocolate peppermint mocha!

 I thought for sure he was going to be wired after the caffeine hit, but he surprised us. He was fine.

Just before we left, we each talked about what we were thankful for, we talked about Grandpa Tex and how much we missed him and then we sent him Happy Thanksgiving hugs and messages up to heaven with our balloons. 

It was awesome-

 We decided it was time to head back home and get the turkey cookin' and all our yummy sides!

I was a little nervous about the turkey because I brined it. I have never used a brine before, but had heard that it really adds a lot of flavor to your turkey. It turned out amazing! We will brine all our future turkeys. I also made a new cranberry and orange stuffing dish and green bean casserole dish...they both were soooo yummy! 

We all ate until we felt almost sick!

It was nice to have some quiet time together...just us...in the comfort of our own home. It turned out to be just what we all needed I think. We missed seeing everyone, but we definitely made the right decision to just stick close to home and take it easy.

I did embark on a new expedition that I have never done before...I decided to join Destiny in the middle of her Thanksgiving Shopping and Black Friday Shopping. She had already been out hitting big deals by the time I met up with her. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, or if I would enjoy any of it...but I knew that it was very un-likely that I was going to be getting much sleep anyway. I had been trying to "let go" of Dad all day and I knew sleep wouldn't come easily, plus I had been sick and up coughing all night the few nights before.

Anyhow- there were a few door buster items that I had on the kids' Christmas lists and if I lucked out and got any of them, it would save us quite a bit of $$. I was very skeptical, but gave it a shot. Destiny went to Sears for me and got in line for 2 items there that I really wanted. I got there about 45 minutes into her wait. I got in-line with her and at that point she had one of the items. The second one, would only be given to us at the register and all we knew was that there were only 6 left!! We were way back in the line, but you couldn't tell what people were in line for. They could be waiting for all sorts of items, so we really had no choice but to stay in line and hope there was one left when we got up there. As we got closer to the registers, the line divided into two lines, so we each went separate ways to double our chances. Bless Destiny's heart....she did all of this for me...she didn't want the big door buster I was after!! We stood in line for a good 2 hours before making it to a register...and I got the LAST ONE!!! I couldn't believe it!

From there we went to Kohl's and had about an hour and 15 minutes before they were to open at Midnight. I went and got in line and Destiny walked over to Starbucks to get us some warm drinks. We really lucked out on the weather. It was clear, dry and not too terribly cold. We waited in line until the doors opened and made a dash in separate directions for the items we wanted! I had never done this before and I have to say it was nothing at all like what I have seen on t.v. and the news. No one was pushing, rude or yelling. Everyone was respectful and it wasn't that bad....it was VERY crowded, but it was tolerable. I got every single door buster item that I wanted and so did Destiny! I saved a total of $157.00! Awesome! Our next store was smooth sailing as well and I got my door buster item again...and it was the very LAST one! We had to wait in line for at-least an hour to pay for it, but I was glad I got it. It saved me about $50.00! My savings were really adding up and no-one had been shot at yet, so I figured we were doing all right. LOL.

We also went to Target and Toys'R Us. No problems there either.

I got home just a little after 3am. Wow...I was tired and sick and probably should have stayed home, but in the end...it turned out to be well worth it!

Thanks D for letting me tag-a-long and thanks for getting in line for me at Sears!! 

We have spent the rest of Thanksgiving break hanging out, eating, resting, playing and eating some more...Pat went and got a few things he wanted for the garage and Griff and Lilly helped him put them together.

I love that Griff uses binoculars to help him work on this project!

After cleaning up our Thanksgiving dinner and the kitchen I turned to find Griff on the counter with the trash can lid...he was licking it...yes, GROSS...

but we all know he has eaten a lot worse!

Ha, love this kid.

~ Happy "late" Thanksgiving to you all ~