So, my wonderful fiends — did you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday? I hope so. We surely did at the Fink house. Helen, who hasn’t been feeling well of late, was able to join us, and she brought her lovely sister, who was visiting from Texas. Even though everyone was very tired from having dinner-hopped all day long, a delightful time of love and laughter was had by all. For that, I am grateful and happy.
Then, Black Friday fell upon us, and it was all men, women and shopping carts for themselves. It was the first time I’d done the early-morning shopping excursion, and it was fine. We didn’t see anyone throwing punches or acting stupid. In fact, daughter-in-law Hannah and her mom Jane and I had a fantastic time.
Look at what all I got done yesterday. Even with the insanity of huge lines and what looked like Saturday night traffic (when it was 3:30 a.m on Friday), I discovered that one can really get some good deals by schlepping it out long before the butt crack of dawn.
And yes, that’s a tiny little artificial tree. The Thriller and I decided to take the plunge yesterday, and as a result, going out to get a real tree, hauling it into the house, trimming its trunk and branches, feeding and watering it, lighting and decorating it, then disassembling and dismembering it are now a thing of the past. We’ve moved on, as it were; too old to mess with it anymore.
At first I was very sad. Now I’m just half sad. But it’s not fair of me to expect the Thriller to do the lion’s share of the physical work (which he would do if I asked him to) when it’s just not wise for his increasingly creaky bones anymore than it would be for mine, so…it’s the Martha Stewart 4-footer from now on, and I’m OK with that.
But hey, I’m still in the Christmas spirit, so fear not! I’m ahead of the game on wrapping gifts (until the online orders start arriving, that is), and I’m pretty much done shopping, so now I can enjoy the upcoming season — which starts, delightfully enough, tonight, with a Js sleepover, when we’ll decorate the tree, play some games, and maybe make some gingerbread cookies. 
Hope you had a great weekend. What was your favorite food experience?
I had a wonderful time at your house for Thanksgiving!! Good food, belly-shaking laughs and lots of love around that table. The best part for me was getting to read all about bees, dolphins, turtles and pigs with my great-nephews!
I think your MS tree is just perfect!! And, it will give us all more room in there at Christmastime!
The J’s are going to have such fun tonight with Grammie and Grandpa Jack.
Wow! You got quite a lot of shopping done already! I’ll have to call the J’s and tell them to look for a pretty box saying, “Aunt Mavis”.
You definitely ran the gamut on the animal kingdom that night! They loved having you read to them. And of course there’s something for Aunt Mavis under the tree! We hope you LIKEY — we will definitely have some more space to jam all of us in the living room without the gargantuan Fraser Fir taking up half the room!
I love the tree!!! That’s a perfect spot for it and yes, more room for prezzies!!! Enjoy your weekend with the boys, they are so lucky!!!!
Thanks, Suz — and I’m getting used to how it looks! We will definitely have fun tonight, although Grammie and Grandpa Thriller will be worn out in the morning!
Nice job on the tree! And GREAT pics with Thriller’s new Nikon! WOOT!
I like the idea that you’ve put it on a table, raising it up to give it more height (ok, that’s the tech director in me speaking!). Lots of room to place gifts and stuff. You might remember (or maybe not) that potted trees back in the days were only about 4’to5′ tall. We used to put ours on a “dynamite box” to raise it up to window height. We still have the dynamite box and mom’s tree goes on it every year–though we did have to cut down the box a bit when she got treezilla in 1980.