Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday and ate your own weight in turkey. We had a wonderful feast with a small group of friends that expanded until more than 25 people were at our feast. Luckily everybody brought something, so nobody had to do all the cooking. We then had a great time playing games and watching the kids run around afterward.

I have also decided to start a new tradition on this thread: Black Friday Cheers and Boos. Black Friday (or the day after Thanksgiving) shopping is a major tradition in my family that I brought with me into our marriage, so much that R gets more excited about shopping than I do. We didn't go to many stores this year, so my list of Cheers and Boos will be short.

Cheers to BlackFriday.info, which is the website we used to watch for all Black Friday deals, starting in early November.

Cheers to Best Buy, Toys R Us, Walmart, and many more for starting their Black Friday a day early online. We were able at least get a shot at some of the "doorbusters" by shopping online the day before.

Boos to the Los Angeles Walmart, which has no idea how to handle checking out customers or how to form lines. The sales staff also had no idea where things were located, so we were sent all over the store looking for a walker for A2, which were completely gone by the time we finally found where they were supposed to be.

Cheers to the Culver City Toys R Us, which is very, very, very organized with forming lines and checking out customers. The sales staff also knew where everything was and could point you in the right direction.

Boos to the Culver City Circuit City, which has no idea how to handle checking out customers or how to form lines.

Boos to the two Circuit City stores in Riverdale, both of which are going out of business. Because they are going out of business, they refused to honor the Black Friday Circuit City ads.

Cheers to the Los Angeles Staples. We called to find out if they had one of their doorbusters still in stock (if they didn't, we didn't want to fight the crowds). Not only did they check their own stock, but they also checked the stock of all the stores in the vicinity to find out that they had three left in stock. On top of spending quite a while on the phone with me to make sure that they could answer all my questions, they also set aside the doorbuster for us (with my specific name on it and everything) to make sure we were able to get it.

These are the only stores we went to/heard about from friends. Do you have any cheers or boos for any store for Black Friday?

Birthday Girl

A1 had a birthday a couple of days ago. She is now 2 and very excited to let people know that she is a big girl.

We had a small party with some of our neighbors, during which A1 sang "Happy Birthday" to herself, blew out the candles, and ate two big pieces of cake. A cake, which I might add, I decorated myself - my first ever attempt at doing so.

Then she opened presents and spent the rest of the night playing with all the animals (between the Little People Noah's Ark and the Little People Farm, she received quite a few animals).

So "Happy Birthday To You," my sweet angel girl.

Neener Nanner Neener

On the advice of a good friend, I would like to inform all of you that this week the high temp has been hovering around 90 degrees. Well, except for yesterday and today - we are staying in the mid-70s. I hope that everyone else is enjoying the snow elsewhere. Where's your global warming now? (Answer: here in California)

P.S. Full disclosure: I miss the snow. How can you have Christmas without snow?

The Big 30!

My birthday was a couple of days ago. I'm now officially 30. I feel very old, but not quite as old as my grandmother, who claims to have been 107 since I was about 3 years old. When I can claim that, then I'll be old, I guess.

R gave me the best birthday present: a Jet Stream convection oven. We had one when we lived in New York, and I have missed it dearly. It cooks just like an oven in the time of a microwave; it can "fry" foods like a deep fryer without any oil; it can reheat food so it's crispier (and occasionally fresher tasting) then when it was originally made. It is the most amazing appliance ever! I highly recommend it to everyone.

A1 and A2 gave me their own little presents. A1 learned the words to "Happy Birthday To You" and insisted on singing it to me at least 10 times (so cute!). A2 learned how to smile on command. I was able to capture the smile on camera after a lot of encouragement and even more shots (hurray for digital photography):

So it was a great birthday. I just have to get used to the fact that I'm no longer in my 20s - I'll get there; it may just take 10 years or so!