Shopping

Well I'm not too annoyed by the early onset of Christmas in stores. I hear people complain..."it's not even Halloween or it's not even Thanksgiving". "Let's get through one holiday at a time". But no matter when things are sold or advertised in stores, the first sign of Christmas for me is Black Friday shopping. Oh that BLESS-SED day every year gives me so much joy. Now-a-days Black Friday is really Thanksgiving day. That doesn't bother me either. Of course if I was the one who had to work that day then it would bother me, but I'm not so I'm going to enjoy it.

This year's first store was Hot Topic. Ashley wrote out a 4 page Christmas list with pictures. T-shirts were $10 and everything else was buy one get one half off. And surprisingly this store was not packed. On any given day this store is packed. It is a small store and they cram a lot into it. But on this particular day it wasn't crowded and I was tickled. One of the clerk's was extremely HELPFUL! I mean so helpful that I looked up a survey to take to compliment him! He helped me locate everything that I needed to get. I felt like I had a personal shopper. He kept a growing pile at the desk so I wouldn't have to carry everything around. And in less than an hour Christmas shopping for Ashley was completely done. Well except for a couple of things I picked up at Walmart for her.

The boys on the other hand are much more difficult! They hardly want anything. Aussie of course wants to go to another Rubik's cube competition and Mason just wants gaming memberships and upgrades and such. Can you say SUCK THE JOY OUT OF CHRISTMAS GIVING? I want that shopping excitement! There is nothing enjoyable about wrapping a piece of paper that says your gift is a computer membership or a competition some time in the future. TEENAGE BOYS!

Anyway, yesterday I cleaned up and took apart the kids' Little Tikes Playhouse that has been in our family room for 10ish years.  It is bittersweet. Last year they had no interest in getting rid of it and I imagined them bringing their dates home in the future and still climbing on top of it. I listed it on Craigslist and someone has responded they are interested. So this morning I got up early and loaded it into my car. They haven't responded back with where to meet, so here's hoping this is still a go. We sure could use that money for the Christmas presents I already bought...or um...for food later on in the month. (just kidding...a little).

So yesterday, I mentioned getting together with a couple of my friends for craft night. On Tuesday, we got together and my friend Caroline is teaching us how to crochet. I know this is silly but I learned something new. I learned you can find out what size crochet needle to use on the yarn packaging. I told you it was silly...it's the little things. LOL! Anyway, I was able to pick up crocheting pretty quickly. I need A LOT of practice as I'm not great at it and I'm still pretty slow at it. Anyway, on Tuesday night it was just a practice run to learn how. But why do all that work when there is nothing to show? So I attempted a water bottle snuggie. It's not perfect but I had fun.

 So who knows if I'll keep it up but that was my Dec. 1st activity.

My Dec 2nd activity was actually at 1 AM Dec. 3rd but shhhhh! don't tell anyone. Someone posted a snickerdoodle recipe on my "diet" forum. It looked so yummy and I had the ingredients so I made them.

Don't they look yummy? 

Well...honestly they were only ok. The flavor is really nice, but it doesn't have that crunch like most cookies have, it is more of a bready kind of cookie. So I'm not sure I'll make them again. I actually think I would enjoy them better if I didn't compare them to the actual snickerdoodle cookie, because they are good just different.

Now onto today...Day 3...what to do? what to do? I can't reach the Christmas tree...so no decorating unless it's done later on...honestly what I need is a nap. Does that count as a Christmas activity?