The Things I'm Learning: Black Friday shopping with two kids and the rest of our Thanksgiving fesitivities

We had an awesome Thanksgiving holiday! Thanksgiving break, for me, started Wednesday. I had to work a few hours then I picked up the boys and we met my best friend and her brother for lunch. The boys quickly latched on to Jaye's brother and begged them to come to our house, so that they did. We hung out all afternoon. Being with Jaye all afternoon reminded me how much I miss my close friends. I have a large number of friends, but a handful of really close friends who don't happen to live here. It really filled me up spending all afternoon with the girl who's been like a sister to me since I was four!

After Jaye and Andrew left, the boys and I worked on their Christmas tree in their room. I bought a white tree from the dollar store several years ago with the intention of using it for a white elephant party. Fast forward a few years, the tree is still in the box and the boys have a Clemson-themed room. I stopped by Hobby Lobby at lunch one day last week and bought orange and purple Christmas balls and some lights for the tree. The tree was larger (6 feet) than I thought, so my mom picked us up some more ornaments and a purple star for the top.

The boys were so cute decorating their tree. Kaden put nearly all of the branches in himself and K.C. fluffed them all out. I stuck the lights on and then they went to town putting on the ornaments. I don't have a picture, but I'll take one tonight to share. It's too cute!

I started Thanksgiving out with a long run. I ran 8 miles on the treadmill (not sure of time because I forgot) while I watched a few Thanksgiving episodes of Friends. I made deviled eggs and crunchy romaine toss after my run while attempting to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. For some reason, I'm the only one in my family who really gets into the parade. The boys and Kevin were content playing. :)

We started our Thanksgiving festivities at my in laws. They hosted both sides of the family at their house. After a delicious meal of fried turkey, more carbs than I can count and a sampling of three or four desserts, we visited and played football. It was fun! Again, no pictures, but trust me - we had fun!

Later on Thursday, we went over to my aunt's house to see my side of the family. Thanksgiving was a little different this year on that side as my granddad is still in the hospital (prayers please). We visited, the boys ran around outside and then we went back to our house. My parents, nana and my sister and her boyfriend hung out all night with us at our house.

Kevin worked Friday, so while he was doing real work, the boys and I worked on decorating the house some more. My sister and I had been talking about Black Friday shopping for the first time ever and decided to do it, albeit after lunch. We met Kevin for lunch and then off we went. Neither of us had anything in particular we wanted to buy, but rather wanted the experience.

I love letting the boys pick out things for Kevin just from them each year. In the past, they've been younger and it's been more difficult, but this year, they were ready to go. We shopped for about 3.5 hours and it was only when we were going back to our car from the last store that Kaden asked me to pick him up. They were such troopers! They picked out some awesome gifts for Kevin, too!

Surprisingly, this isn't a real "I'm tired" picture. It's actually Stephanie getting them to pretend like they're sleeping under some really great running clothes (if I might add that).

Friday night, Kevin and I had a date night. We went to see Catching Fire. It was great! We'd been wanting to see it since it came out, but hadn't had a chance. We really enjoyed it. I can't wait to see the last two movies!

We spent part of the day Saturday working on Christmas decorations and putting up everything from Thanksgiving. Our house is almost completely decorated for Christmas with the exception of a few things.

Stephanie and her boyfriend had tickets to the Carolina Clemson game in Columbia Saturday night, but they ended up not being able to go at the last minute. She gave us her tickets, so we drove up to Columbia Saturday afternoon for the game.

I joked last week that if I was going, Clemson was going to win. The last Clemson Carolina game I remember was when Clemson won at the end of the game in Columbia. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case this Saturday. I did enjoy going to the game with my husband though.

One thing that did bother me at the game were the attitudes and words coming out of some people's mouths. The girl behind us cussed like a sailor and said some very unladylike things. I like to watch the games with my husband, but I don't get all into it like that and I just don't understand how anyone - much less young women - can talk like they do during a football game. At the end of the day, it's a game. If Clemson had won, I would've been happy, but I would not have yelled obscenities at Carolina fans (and I love many of them) had they lost. I know things like that happen everywhere and with an in-state rivalry, things can get heated, but I was really disappointed in the way some people acted. And end rant.

We picked up lunch after church yesterday and spent the afternoon at home. I let the boys set up the nativity scenes their own way and we wrapped some presents. My sister stopped by and ran out with me to look for some ribbon and to get groceries and then my mom stopped by to see us all. The boys were pooped, so we got to bed early.