Three Meals, a Confession, and Book Giveaways

After three Thanksgiving meals-one turkey, one ham, one turkey-still-in-the-oven-due-to-oven-issues- we are home again and feeling blessed by our visit with our family.  We typically have three Thanksgiving meals since we have one meal with Derek's family and two with mine.  (My parents are divorced.)  They all live within an hour of each other, but it's still a busy day or couple of days.

Oh,this year we did not have all three meals in one day.  The three feasts were spread out over two days.  They were all quite the feasts, too (even with the turkey dinner that did not have any turkey).  I am very pleased to say that I did not make any of these meals.  Actually, I only contributed to one of the meals.  Since I didn't have access to my own kitchen (and I didn't want to be in the way in Grandma's kitchen), I offered to take bread or applesauce to my sister's dinner.  She chose homemade applesauce.

So between the three meals and my total lack of self-control when it comes to snacking at Grandma's home, I have regained two of the seven pounds I had lost in the past couple of months.  Hmm.  Not so good.  Chips, cookies, pie.  YUM.

I have a confession to make.  Remember how I talked about how I shop for Christmas?  I stated that I do NOT shop on Black Friday.  Well.  Um.  I lied.  I confess to you, dear friends, that I lied to you.  Please let me explain.  I fully intended NOT to shop on Friday.  I was talking to my mother-in-law about going shopping on Saturday with her, to Boscov's.  (Boscov's is a department store like JC Penney, for those of you not familiar with it.)  My MIL, Janice, also works at Boscov's.  She was content to go on Saturday, but also told me it would not be busy on Friday.  The location of this Boscov's is in the downtown of a city...not that close to the mall or shopping centers; therefore, it would not be busy.  Derek's aunt, Donna, also agreed that it would not be busy.  Though she isn't a shopper, she was also willing and wanting to shop on either Friday or Saturday.

Well, as it turns out, we went Friday morning.  We arrived at Boscov's at 9 o'clock.  It was not busy.  Seriously.  When we arrived it was a quiet morning of shopping.  However, we were there until about 11:30.  By the time we left it was moderately busy.  It kind of felt like Walmart on a regular day.  Do I regret going?  No.  Would I shop Boscov's again on Black Friday?  Yes, but only at that particular Boscov's.

Maybe I should also tell you that most of the money I spent that day was on Derek and me.  Somehow we found room in the car for all of it.

I also wanted to let you know that my friend at Reading to Know is having Christmas giveaways all week.  She's a great source for recommending books for children and adults, and she reviews from a Christian perspective, though not exclusively Christian books, which I appreciate.  Carrie and I have become friends as she has introduced me to many new authors and books.  She often has giveaways, but really, the reviews are incredible, too!  Go check her out!

I have a Christmas advent tree to make before I can show it to you!  So I'm off to finish my unpacking and projects!