Thanksgiving/Black Friday

I do not have any pictures from yesterday...FAIL. Not really sure what happened, other than we hosted (again; 4th year) and with all the activity and babies/toddlers/children running in and out and making sure food was set up and flowing, I forgot. I realized it about six o'clock last night, but by then everyone was gone or leaving and it was pitch-black dark. Oh well.

We had a good day. I'm a fanatic about my house, so hosting is always a little stressful for me. With Hayden "helping," it took me 2 1/2 days to clean, shampoo carpets, work on food, organize, etc. So you can see why I like my house to stay clean when it's clean. Plus, David and I leave for Vancouver 3 weeks from today, and I do not plan to devote any serious time to deep cleaning. I have to maintain (which is oh-so-easy with a toddler!).

David and I split up and hit Black Friday sales. The only thing we were really after was a GPS as we are shortly moving 41 hours away to a city we do not know! And our little backroads here are nothing to what we're about to encounter. So David got in line at Target, and my mom, sister, and I headed to the outlets in Gulfport. My brother-in-law kept all the kiddos at my mom's house and Hayden and Gabe (cousins) had a "sleepover." However, I found out later this morning that Hayden didn't really go to sleep until about 2. Then my sister called at 5 (after we got home after 3) to say Hayden was up. So I ran up to my mom's, grabbed him, and we came home and slept off and on until 8. A nap is in the near future.

Thankfully, Hayden's Christmas is done. We even started the "Elf on the Shelf" tradition with him today. He named his elf Michael. We'll see how that goes. Oh, and definitely check out http://www.portablenorthpole.com/! You can personalize a message from Santa specifically for your child. It was fantastic to watch Hayden's eyes grow and hear him say, "Wow!" This is a great age!

David and I (and the family in general) are going very low-key. We have to think about everything we buy, as our living space is about to be a 1/3 of what is currently is.

The next month is going to be insane. Holiday gatherings, 3 weeks of teaching, Vancouver, family pictures, Christmas, purging, etc. I'm already tired! But that could just be the overnight shopping talking! It was great not to be "after" anything. No tv's, no Xbox, just a GPS with free map updating. I am also very cheap. Hayden needs clothes, but even at the outlets, I was still going to be paying $8-11/piece. No thanks. I like my Children's Place $1.97 sales (and yes, we have stumbled across many of those!).

So Happy belated Thanksgiving and Merry early Christmas!