Survival of the Fittest

I can now add another notch on my belt, surviving another Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey passed the test and I think this may indeed be the only dish I can cook to perfection. Since the turkey went so well, I was hoping to be forgiven for the burnt pumpkin pie that followed. I've decided that next year's pie will come ready made from Village Inn. Then, my dinner will be perfect and I will win Betty Crocker's Best Thanksgiving Dinner Award. Amen.

Everyone left earlier then usual, for my brother and daughter had to work in the wee hours of the morning, so I was able to get to bed at a fairly decent time to get some sleep before getting up early for our traditional JCPenney's Christmas globe.

Every year, that darn company opens an hour earlier then the year before. This year, it was four a.m. Don't they realize that I am not a morning person and to make me half to get up at the crack of dawn is like pulling out my wisdom teeth without Novocaine? I will definitely be writing them a nasty letter letting them know how we must get these globes every year because we've been doing it for ten years now and could they PLEASE be nice and not open so early?

We made it though, loaded up on coffee with my kidneys threatening to bring on a very large kidney stone if I drank anymore caffeine. Afterwards, we headed off to Target to try to score some door buster deals-door buster? They should call it ball crushing, leg pulling, face smashing deals, cause that's what it looked like to me.

I've never had the chance to be at a store at opening time on Black Friday. It was crazy. They were lined up like hungry tigers that hadn't been fed for a week and the zoo keeper was at the front of the line, holding up one big juicy New York steak on a fork. Then, they opened the doors and said, "Come and get it."

In about five minutes time, the movies were gone, the electronics were snatched, the appliances were dropped in carts and the lines to check out started forming. It was a nightmare. Everywhere you went, a check out line appeared out of thin air and continued all the way to the back of the store. I looked at my one item in my cart-the one thing that I was lucky to get, and wondered if saving money was worth it.

We (my mom, sister, Emily and I) decided to go wait over at their Starbucks area and get some drinks and wait it out. After about a half an hour, the lines were only getting worse, so we decided to just get it over with. My sister had spotted a new checkout area that wasn't long, so we ran over to see if we'd get lucky. No such luck. Apparently, news travels fast when it comes to mad shoppers. We still waited about an hour to checkout and I tell ya, when you have alot of time on your hands, you have to get creative to keep your sanity. I casually leaned towards the people in front of me and listened to their conversation-I'm bad, I know. Oh also, I mentally counted how many times the lady behind me could hit her cart into mine every time we moved.

I finally made it up to the counter and the smiling checkout guy (who deserves a medal for keeping his upbeat mood) checked out my item and wished me a happy holiday. We were off to try to go to Walmart, but before we left, we got wind that the Walmart across town wasn't very busy, so we rushed-wait, I have to laugh my butt off first after saying "rushed"- I meant to say, after crawling through traffic, we got across town and had better luck with their deals. I think about this time, I was starting to feel the effects of no sleep and hoped that I didn't pass out on the store floor, for I was sure that the shoppers would not notice and I would go home with foot prints plastered on my forehead.

We ended up at one last store and I found a very cute holiday dress for Emily for a great deal and after a tiny bit of protest from my mom over the color, I won, and now Emily will be paying the price this holiday for my love of the color black.

Before my sister headed off, she gave me a special surprise-a pair of Minnetonka boots that she bought and decided she didn't want them.

Now, I've never heard of them before and I also didn't know that these babies run about one hundred and fifty bucks. You see, since becoming a mom, I don't pay over twenty for any clothes or shoes for myself-Wait, I've probably never paid a hundred bucks for ANY shoes EVER.

Ahhh, sometimes it would be nice to live my sister's no-children-unless-you-consider-their-dog-a-child life. Not really, kids, I love you and that's the story I'm sticking to.

Anyway, expensive never felt so good and I have found heaven for my feet. I will love them and kiss them and never let a drop of bad weather touch them. Ok, maybe I will only be able to wear them in the house. Thanks sis, for giving me a taste of the "spoiled" life.