Christmas Time

 This time of year always makes me feel light-hearted.  For me, it starts with Thanksgiving -- a time to gather with family, share your thankfulness, and enjoy fellowship.  This year, we had family over at our house, which was a lot of fun.  In fact, it was unanimously voted that we host Christmas, too! :)  It was fun to see the guys in the family enjoying themselves -- my dad fired up the forge and the men did some blacksmith-ing.  After watching them for a while, the girls went back inside to chat (and eat chocolate and drink punch).  I also was busy going through dozens and dozens of ads and clipping out great coupons!

 My sister, mom, and I stayed up and left our house about 11:30pm to drive to the nearest town with all of our "Black Friday stores": Herberger's, Kohl's, and JC Penney.  I was surprised to see how many men were out shopping with their wives at Herberger's!  It was pretty much me and five other men standing around the $10 14pc. Pyrex sets to find out how many we needed to grab!  We got to Kohl's about 2:30 (Kohl's and Herb's opened at midnight, if you didn't know), and decided at about 3:15 that we better get in line and take turns between looking around and standing in line.  To make a long story short, we were still in line at 4:45 with about an hour and a half to go.  Thankfully, we discovered a second line that everyone said was equally as long -- NOT!  It was WAY shorter: we jumped in at the back of the line at the 15 min. mark.  Anyway, I picked out a few Christmas presents for myself, so I know what I'm getting this year (it's better this way than getting something you don't want and having to wait in line after Christmas to return it).

 I am pleased to tell you that I got my pajamas at JC Penney.  My tradition is to buy two pairs of pajamas a year...on Black Friday...at JC Penney.

 We went to a few other stores and then headed home around 8am -- the entire way home I was nodding off, trying to stay awake to help keep my mom awake! :)  I slept from 10 to 2:30 and when I woke up, guess what we did!  Went shopping again!  This time it wasn't very exciting because we went to Cabela's and yes, their clothes are cute, but even on sale, I can't afford them!

Black Friday makes me so happy for two reasons.  One, because of all the sales!  Two, because it's the start of Christmas!  Friday night, I went on Spotify and made a 20 hour long playlist filled with dozens of Christmas albums, which I'm listening to now.  Also, on the way home on Friday evening, we saw mini-vans with trees atop them!  That's just a pretty sight to me.  Oh, and another favorite is the sound of bells outside of stores: the Salvation Army bell ringers!  Love it!

This week I'm thankful for...
121. Christmas music
122. beginning of advent
123. e-cards from friends
124. relaxing after a hard day
125. sleeping in!
126. family gathering
127. delicious food
128. Thanksgiving being a national holiday
129. Black Friday shopping with mom & sister
130. good deals :)

 My favorite Christmas album this week is: Home for Christmas by BarlowGirl.

 Have a blessed week,
   ~Sierra