The Most Wonderful Day of the Year!

I love Black Friday. It means crowds, sales, getting up early, shopping straight for 9 hours without kids, being with friends, spending money, and filling the van. We did have a little extra room in the van this year, but we did take more than one also.

We started bright and early at 3:15 am at Target and didn't get home until 12:30 in the afternoon. I love going even if people think I'm crazy. I think I love the company that I am with and the fact that most of the Christmas shopping can be done in 1 day! I look forward to Black Friday as much as kids look forward to Christmas morning.

Black Friday also means getting out the Christmas stuff. Boxes of red and green can only mean decorations.

Megan did a great job with the tree while Emily watched mostly and Tyler helped Wendell with the lights outside. I just love the Thanksgiving weekend. We saw Santa come into town in a parade, played laser tag, saw Tangled, shopped some more, and ate out. It really is the best time of year. Now we are ready for the busyness of December.

Thanksgiving Day

I just love Thanksgiving. I love that it is a relaxing day with food, games, and family. I also like the anticipation of the shopping weekend. This year we went to a church to eat and celebrate.

Grandma Grace has a lot of posterity when we sit down to eat. There were a lot of people and a lot of food.

Emily's favorite part was the pumpkin pie with squirt cream.

While the adults played games, the kids entertained themselves in the gym with tables, the stage, and planning plays. It was a fun day.

Later that night, we went to Wendell's parent's house to do gingerbread houses. I think the kids ate more of the candy than actually got on the house. What a great day to be reminded of everything we have to be thankful for and celebrate with those that mean the most.

Thanksgiving Break

The last day of school before Thanksgiving a huge "blizzard" was supposed to blow in. Everyone rushed home to wait out the terrible storm. Well, we didn't get our blizzard, but snow did fall. Enough to make the perfect playground for a day without school.

The kids spent hours digging and building forts.

Sadly, it hasn't snowed since, and their forts have all melted.

The night before Thanksgiving, we went to a festival of trees. Emily was so sad that we wouldn't fork over the $700 for a new tree complete with decorations. I finally told her it was either the tree or presents on Christmas. She relented and was happy with reindeer food for $1.00.

The trees were beautiful.

It was fun to look at everything. Tyler informed us after looking at all the trees, that we needed to do a little better with our own when we put it up. I can always count on Tyler to be honest. Now bring on the turkey.

You Just Got Burned!

I have finally finished my final for the semester and can update the blog again. Before I do, though, I have to quote Megan. She had a lesson a couple of weeks ago in Young Women's on tithing. Apparently the only thing she heard was the scripture about being burned at the last days if you don't pay. We had tithing settlement this week and she took almost all of her cash out to pay as tithing---which we didn't know. Well, today we were in the car talking about buying things and Megan said, "I can't buy that. I don't have any money. I paid it all to tithing so that I won't get burned." I think we need to have a lesson on the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. At least she is covered if the second coming happens in the next couple of months. I guess I should be more willing to pay all I have so I won't get burned.