Holiday Spirit

I have to admit. I wasn't feeling an ounce of holiday spirit when Thanksgiving day dawned this year. This is the first Thanksgiving we have celebrated with just the six of us. I started the day with the thought that if I don't have 30 people sitting down to share our meal, it is not Thanksgiving. But, you know what? It turned out OK, and I would venture to say the day turned on the holiday spirit more than any other Thanksgiving past.

We started our day in a relaxed sort of way. I didn't have to worry about cleaning the bathrooms or vacuuming the floors. We weren't rushing around trying to get turkeys basted and casseroles heated on a timetable. In fact, we didn't even have turkey. The kids helped us make our family menu, and they chose chicken over turkey. Mark threw in a pork roast too, just to spice things up a bit.

We had a lovely dinner together after which we settled down to watch our first Christmas movie of the season. It started to feel a whole lot like Christmas! Watching Charlie Brown sit down to a dinner of toast and jelly beans added to the festive feeling in the air.

And of course nothing says holidays better than Black Friday. Ever since we got married, Mark and I have made Black Friday an almost-all-night date night. Our move to the Arctic kind of threw a wrench in that tradition since we do not have family to spend the night with the kids. Last year the tradition was saved by a friend who graciously agreed to be just crazy enough to attack the huge New York mall with me. She couldn't make it this year, though. I was bummed. Then on a whim, I asked my oldest if she wanted to go. Of course she did! Sometimes I forget she isn't five anymore.

Unfortunately, despite the addition of a new partner in crime, this year may have marked the end of my 17 year run on Black Friday. I'm sure the retailers are kicking themselves for not coming up with the brilliant idea of opening the stores late Thursday instead of in the wee hours of Friday. Staying up late instead of dragging oneself out of bed? Much easier on this night owl. And apparently much easier on, like, 10 million of my closest shopping buddies.

You know I despise crowds. So we only made it to two stores. BUT I had an awesome time with my girl. Great time with someone you love...that's what makes an experience worthwhile, so it certainly was worth the hassle to venture out last night.

With all this holiday spirit coursing through my veins, I'd say it's time to corral the family and get out the door to find a Christmas tree.

Our Lucky Day

I've noticed it every time I've visited Kohl's. Sitting there near the aisle. And every time I visit Kohl's, I try it out for a couple of hours minutes. It's the Homedics Shiatsu Massage Cushion. I think it is the heated one I've tried out several hundred times. Priced at $250. Too much to pay in my opinion.

But lately my back has been in an especially bad way. So bad, in fact, that I paid a visit to Dr. Quack the chiropractor this morning. He said my pelvis is a little off, hence the reason my whole right side hurts like crazy and keeps me up at night.

When I got back from the chiropractor, Mark was on his way out to Kohl's to return a duplicate video game and to perhaps spend the Kohl's cash we earned when we did our Christmas shopping.

"Couldn't you just take a look at the shiatsu thingy? Pleeeease? Maybe it's on major sale, and you can pick it up for me for a hundred or something."

He said he'd look.

He called me about 15 minutes later to inform me that he could not find the cushion. Anywhere.

"Can't you ask someone if they have one in the back? Pleeeeease?" I pleaded. I had my doubts. When do they ever find things in The Back?

When he came home with the Homedics Shiatsu Massage Cushion in hand, I was surprised. He told me to try it out. I did, basking in the therapy, yet at the same time trying not to get too attached to the cushion should we need to return it to help our bank account. I was especially nervous when Mark asked me, "So how much do you like it? How much is it worth to you?"

"Ummm...a hundred? Please tell me you only paid a hundred. Or maybe $150?"

"No."

Gulp.

"It was free," he said.

Turns out he did indeed ask someone if there was one in the back. This employee disappeared for a few minutes and came back with one. It appeared to be an open box, and it wasn't the heated cushion I had tried before, but if I need heat--which I never use anyway--we have a heating pad.

"It's your lucky day," she said. "You can have this one for $26.99." Mark paid with our $30 Kohl's cash.

Guess it was our lucky day. Either that, or God really does care about the little things. Like aching backs.

See? I can act my age.

I'm in my mid, almost upper-30s. I look young. And I'm not bragging. That's not a compliment to me when someone tells me I look like a teenager because usually what a person means by that is, I don't take you seriously because you look like a teenager.

I act old, though. I don't play, really play, with my kids as much as I should. I don't do a lot of fun, spontaneous things anymore. And I always require my 6-7 hours of sleep.

But this weekend was Thanksgiving. Which means there was a Black Friday following the feasting. Which means that tradition dictates I throw the Old Lady Act out for a day or, rather, a night. It is on this, the nation's biggest shopping day, that I venture out with my husband in the middle of the night. We check things off our list, and we enjoy each other's company minus the little people.

This year was a bit different because some stores threw off our normal early-morning schedule by opening at midnight rather than at 4am. Toys R Us was that store. And I don't know why we always try to do Toys R Us. We are not serious enough shoppers to stand for hours in a line out in the freezing cold, so we never get there early enough to get the doorbuster deals. Then, after we have chosen the items we do want, when we see the check-out line that circles the gigantic store at least once, we always put the items back and leave empty-handed. But every year, there we are at Toys R Us. And this year, there we were. Only earlier.

Even though they opened at midnight, the other stores we wanted to visit didn't open until early morning, and, try as we might to be completely young, we did decide we wanted at least a couple of hours of sleep. So we went to bed at 9:30. And I lay there wide-eyed for at least two hours like I usually do, solving the world's problems. (Oftentimes I write blog posts in my head while I'm lying there, but obviously there was no head-blogging going on, or this post would have been written a bit earlier). Just as I had fallen into deep sleep, the alarm went off.

We were out the door by 1:30 and off to Toys R Us. The parking lot should have been our first clue that we were once again going to leave empty-handed, but there we were with 3 and 1/2 hours before another store would open, so in we went. And sure enough, the really good deals I wanted were gone, and the line was already winding around the store, in and out of the aisles. We left. But not before running into some good friends whom we would encounter several times during the night/morning.

With a couple of hours to kill, we decided to head to the mall. We had no idea there would be anything open in the mall, but there were cars in the parking lot, so we decided to follow the crowd. (As a side note, following the crowd can backfire on you. One Christmas, we were on the road and saw a McDonald's that looked open. We pulled up behind several cars in the drive-thru, finally got up to the speaker-order-thingy, and tried to place our order. No one there. It was closed. I wonder if we were on candid camera that day.) Anyway.

Our early morning escapade ended up being worth it because we cleaned up at the Disney Store in the mall. All items that weren't on our list, but the deals were too good to pass up. After the Disney Store, we got to go on our date. To the Waffle House. Because we're a class act.

So to cut down the length of my tale, I'll summarize by saying that we also got some great deals at Kohl's, Target, and Wal-Mart. If you've never been to Wal-Mart on Black Friday, it really is a must-experience. At least once. If you have a shopping cart, it's like Rush Hour traffic. Seriously. You can't move. It's a little easier without a cart. Sort of like being a motorcycle in Rush Hour traffic; you can weave in and out a bit. So I stood on the edge of the traffic jam with the shopping cart, and, using the cell phone, guided Mark to a couple of end caps I could see from my vantage point, which contained various items I can't name here because occasionally my daughter reads this.

And that was it. The end of another Black Friday. See? Sometimes I can be young. Ish. And, no, I'm not going to 'fess up to an afternoon nap because that would just make me sound old.