Thanksgiving and Black Friday

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, in our own house. This was our first time hosting Thanksgiving dinner, and my first time cooking a turkey. We had two other families here, the Demsey and the Hildebrandt families. Vincent and Evan, the toddlers, did very well playing together. Eating didn't go as well, but only because they hardly ate. Here are some highlights. For the full details, click on the "Family Meal" link to the right...and then I have to tell you about Black Friday.

I've just stuffed the turkey (7.17 lb heritage turkey from Thundering Hooves). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the final result. Our table is ready...and so is Tyler.

Tyler's 1st Thanksgiving dinner aftermath. Not too bad.

The day after Thanksgiving, we took the kids on a bus ride downtown. Once there, we hopped on the monorail and went to Seattle Center. Vincent got to pick out two rides. Both ended up being his favorite, the little cars, once before lunch and once after. Sadly, the ferris wheel and the carousel were no longer at the Fun Forest.

Tyler watched happily as Vincent came around in the car.

For lunch, we ate at Quincy's in the Center House, and happened to be there for the lighting of the Christmas tree and the kick off of Winterfest. Men playing bagpipes marched to the stage and Mayor Greg Nichols did the countdown for the tree.

After lunch and one more ride on the little cars, we took a different bus back home. Tyler fell asleep while waiting for the bus and woke up right before we walked into the front door of the house (of course). Luckily, we were able to get him back down to sleep. Whew! Vincent was yapping away on the bus ride back, but was really so cute. It took him a long time, but he did finally fall asleep in his room.

While the kids napped, David and I set up the Christmas tree. It's so exciting to have the tree up so early in the season.

Now...BLACK FRIDAY...

After all our guests left Thursday night and the kids were fast asleep in their beds, David and I sat down at the kitchen table and talked about whether or not we wanted to partake in the Black Friday deals. We looked through a pile of ads, and talked about what we would get. At 11:15pm, David set off for Toys R Us in Bellevue, to arrive for their midnight opening. Yes, midnight.

He got there about 20 to midnight and got a spot in line about a block from the entrance. When he got into the store, he said that he just had to go with the herd of shoppers. We had decided on getting 3 things. Only one was on sale, but we also had a $10 coupon for a $100 or more purchase. With the 3 items, we would make that price. The one sale item was worth all the hassel, we think. We saw it on amazon.com for $149, Toys R Us normally sells it for $99.99, and we got it for $69.99, plus that $10 discount. Now, we are pretty much set for the kids. Maybe one more thing for Tyler.

How did you spend your Thanksgiving this year?