Today is Christmas Celebration #1

With my son working the next 3 days, today, Sat the 22nd is our celebration with him and his family.

This is li'l Bailey, the first pic taken with my new camera!!

Its gonna be a busy next 5 days.

Today, for me, a li'l more relaxing...as after breakfast (our 'We're still here" breakfast)   I don't really have anything planned.  HOPING to get in my scraproom and organize (gasp, did you say organize?)   Then dinner/gifts at the kids.  I am making green beans and bread for the dinner.   The green bean recipe came from The Food Network magazine, and were such a hit at Thanksgiving, my ddil requested them to go with her ham tonight.  

But for everyone else, sounds like it is shaping up to be a busy day.  DH is waiting for the delivery of our new stove and dishwasher.  (our old stove broke last weekend).  Which he and dsil are going to install themselves. aye yi yi.

Mil and Fil are awaiting the delivery of their double wide trailer.  Which is gonna be set up on our property and will be their home.  Mil came out of her surgery GREAT, and last night was a great visit with them.  As dh says the best we've seen her in over a year.   Last night, we had an 'end of the world' dinner of personal pizzas (homemade dough) and I watched the first 2 Twilight movies.  or should I say had them on.

Tomorow morning, I have nursery at the church.  Then dsil (son in law, here) invited some good friends over for 'taco bar'.   Homemade queso and taco bar.  May play a game like Battle of the Sexes as well.

Monday morning, NOTHING planned, but there is a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service we will more than likely attend.  DH is also cooking that night.  Roast Beef and mashed potatoes.

Tues morning, stockings, pancake breakfast and kicking back.   I am hoping to get away to see Les Mis. (dh says he will take me...but we will see what he says when the time comes)  He HATES movie theaters and hasn't sat at one for years.   

And of course, I took Weds off, to check out the after Christmas sales. 

This year, I have been taking pics but not doing the JYC album with Shimelle.  Maybe during one of the down times, I'll start.   I do have a trip to Texas planned at the end of Jan...may take the pics there.

Oh, just saw that there is an ongoing Art Journal challenge at 2 Peas...I've always wanted to do Art Journaling.   Also need to finish my reading books...(not gonna hit my yearly goal...the Oct book really threw me off)  But I bought myself "You're Not the Boss of Me" for myself, as I've been accused of spoiling my dgd.   and there is talk of a li'l Love Dare type of Bible study between my girls and I.  

So, it makes for a very extended Christmas holiday, which I don't mind.   It is not great that ds has to work, but part of the 'price' of being a police officer.   Always thankful, we got Thanksgiving with him.

Hope ya'll have a great Christmas.

wow, been a while, how about a BF shopping tale

I mean December is always a blur, but November also.

I have been writing blogs in my head...like Thanksgiving..and the day after.

We had Thanksgiving with my bro in law, it was all very nice...but I like to have my own Thanksgiving dinner, as I like have a weekend of leftovers.  

However, on Thanksgiving, I gave up on my principles and let dd talk me into Black Friday shopping.  We went to Michaels (no crowds) then Walmart..O M G.  Now, no lines outside, but they let you wait at the displays till the sale start..8pm.  So, we spent a couple of hours in front of the displays of the video games we wanted...me in front of Wii and dd and Altje (ds's exchange student) in front of Xbox.  Ddil was free roaming, doing her own shopping and scouting the next display dd wanted to hit.

this is dd (short gal in white) and Altje (tall gal right next to her) at the X box display @6pm.

These were set up in the middle of a very wide aisle, from the front of the store was the X box, a small distance was the PSP'ers...the 2nd set of people in the pic...and last was the Wii.

Now us Wii'ers, were very civilized.  and a small group.  I mean think about it, most of us are women or children who do activities and exercise.  The hot games were the new Just Dance and Zumba...and a couple of girls has set up on that side of the display and were asking us what we wanted, as they were willing to grab for us.

There were a lot of PSP'ers..but it was a quiet group.

The Xbox'ers...Oh My...Rowdy, security had to step in...and Before the displays were unwrapped.  The woman you can kinda see behind the teen was making threats to my dd!!  But think about it, what do these gamers do?  Yeah, play shoot em up games.

So we get to 8pm and the wrappings are removed on the displays...it got crazy.  Even at Wii, the 2 girls popped up with arms full of games, and people are grabbing.  I got the next to last one.
When I was able to look up, I saw pieces of the PSP display flying in the air!! and these were the quiet people!  I was so worried for dd in the midst of the rowdies, and she was threatened.  I made my way to the Xbox display and it was gone.  there was the bottom left and a mound of games.  I could see that security was not 'reviving' anyone, no injured in the immediate area...but, I wasn't good till I could see my dd.

When I caught up to her, she told me what happened.  The guy you see in gray tshirt was next to the basketball game she wanted ...so as soon as display opened, he grabbed her one and yelled "I got you, get out of here"...but her dh had called and wanted a headphone that was on top of the display...so she had to reach over the back of a guy leaning down (he may have a shoe print on the back of his shirt)  and says she 'flew' over the leaning display..and got one.  Altje says she thought someone had pushed dd (as threatened) and she went to try to catch her.   All this happened in less than a minute.   They say it wasn't the people who were lined up around the display, but the crowd that pushed in from outside that made it dangerous.

We all checked out fairly quickly, I'd say by 8:05,  knew what we wanted and got out of there.  Ddil, being a a former Marine, had us walk out with dd in the middle.   Altje in front, dd, me and then ddil watching the flank, since there was a threat made to dd.  

Anyways, a Black Friday adventure.  Altje wanted to 'experience' and American Black Friday...and well, she got a pretty good  story to tell.

We've all decided no deal is worth it and next year, we'll be kicking back and eating pie.  Like momma said.

this has gotten long, I'll try to remember to tell you about my day after Thanksgiving dinner I made...think, 18 year old making her first dinner, Instead of 51 year old who's been doing this for almost 30 years...a tale of many disasters...ha!!!!