The Shoebox: Thanksgiving 2013

Gobble gobble!

So I'm averaging about 1 blog post every two months or so. Ya...I know pretty lame. How am I ever going to catch everyone up? Truth is, I really can't so I will start with the most recent event - Thanksgiving.
The day before Thanksgiving both Brian and I had to work so we got a pretty late start on our drive to MI. We left the house a little after 6:30 and headed off to Lansing! Claire entertained herself for a solid 30 minutes before getting too fussy then just kinda faded off to sleep without much trouble. Answered prayer! The trip was roughly four hours even though we came across some lake effect snow near St. Joseph. We arrived at Grandma and Papa's around Midnight.
Like usual we spent some time catching up, but before long we were all headed to bed to rest up before a big day of eating.
Claire decided that 6am was a great time to get up at Grandma's. We went downstairs and played with all of grandma's fun toys and occupied ourselves until the rest of the family emerged from their beds. Grandma and Papa headed off to Mass and seemed to return before I knew it! Soon after a few cousins showed up and the house was buzzing with activity. The kids were playing, and the women were mapping out their strategy for Thanksgiving night shopping. We discovered that all the deals we were interested in were happening that night! For the 1st Black Friday that I've been in MI -we did NOT get up at the freakin' crack of dawn. I'm selfishly hoping this whole Thanksgiving night shopping thing continues!
Before long we were on our way to Mandy's where we ate until our tummies were well past content. Turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberries, green bean casserole - YUM! Oh and did I mention lobster bisque?! Ya, Mandy does it up right when she hosts a party. We ate like kings.


Photo op while I waited in line at Target!

Right around the time I wanted to doze off to sleep - the troops were preparing for the shopping trip. Target at 6:30 (they opened at 8pm) and Kohls right after.
Note to self. In 2 years when you are ready to do this again - pack hand warmers and bring a hot chocolate to drink while waiting in line - oh and bring warmer shoes - fake Toms just won't work well!!!
As time ticked by the Target workers would come and go - handing out maps of the store and made sure to draw attention that we could easily save 5% on every purchase with our Red cards - if we didn't have a Red card they were ready and waiting to sign us up.
Overall - we were in and out of Target in 30 minutes! Kohls too a little while longer - then some really committed shoppers went to the mall after that - I did not. It was extremely productive! I have 1 more gift to buy for Christmas and I'm done!
Friday Papa made us all Walleye from the fishing trip during the Spring - YUM! Claire is a fish stick snob - will not eat them out of the box, but couldn't get enough of Papa's fish!
The ride back was smooth - no complaints here! What a wonderful way to celebrate the Holiday!

Next order of business - wrapping gifts!!