Weekend Recap...Turkey, Movies and Shopping!

I love four-day weekends!!! It feels so good to have time to get stuff done AND fit in lots of fun stuff too!

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house and while we were completely childless this year (weird feeling), we had the pleasure of our good friends and their mom joining us as well as my parents and grandmother. We ate, visited, looked at sale fliers, and laughed so hard we were nearly in tears. It felt really good. A fire in the fireplace, candles glowing, a bounty of yummy foods, and love and friendship filling the house...who can ask for anything more than that?!

Later in the evening, Deb and Jim joined us to go see a movie. A tradition I started a few years back when the kids would head out to be with their Dad and his family. While it started as just a way to distract me, it ended up being something I now look forward to each year.

We saw August Rush. I loved it! It made my heart feel good! And lately there haven't been that many movies that have really touched me. I highly recommend this one! It is about a boy who is looking for his real parents after spending 11 years in an orphanage in NYC.

We watched a few movies at home over the weekend too. Here are my reviews...

Wild Hogs: Four guys try to ward off mid-life mediocrity by heading out on a cross-country biker adventure. Kind of corny, but made me laugh. And sometimes that is just what I want out of a movie! Loved the interaction of the four big stars. William H Macy was hysterical!

Next: Nicholas Cage sees into the future and is sought out to help in a national security issue. I really liked it, although wished they would have ended it a bit differently. It keeps you on your toes trying to figure out which scenes are his visions and which are really happening.

Premonition: Sandra Bullock has a reoccurring vision that her husband is going to die in a car crash and it flashes between reality and her dreams so much it left me confused, disappointed and often bored. I do not recommend this one unless you have time to kill and nothing better to do. It wasn't so bad I turned it off, but it wasn't so good I would recommend it.

We didn't get up at the crack of dawn or stay up all night to go shopping at midnight, but we did score a few great Day-After sales! We got our holiday shopping underway and got Rog a little more in the holiday spirit (I think)! We went to storage and brought home our tree so we can get that all set up before heading to Arkansas. I love that it is pre-lit! I used to take three days to put on the lights. Yeah, I said three days...I'm a little fussy, so what?! LOL! Now that stress is wiped away completely!!!! We used a lot of our wedding gift money last year to buy the 12' tree and I just LOVE it! And I love that it reminds me of our wedding day and all the friends and family that helped us get it. I can hardly wait to get it up and decorated!

I decided to go for a little different holiday look in the family room this year. Since the room is decorated all in a black, Paris theme I decided to play off that this year. I found some beautiful black and silver ornaments at WalMart and some matching stockings. I think it will give it just the Parisian touch I'm looking for. I can't say as I ever considered black as a Christmas decor color before, but I think I really like the formal look it brings!

We also took a drive to the new Cabella's store that opened a couple weeks ago. It is a little over an hour away, but it was worth the drive! It is so much more than a store! It has a shooting gallery, a stuffed animal exhibit that is really cool, an aquarium, a gun exhibit, a cafe and more! It took us quite a while to get through the place and we were skimming the surface. Not being a hunter, Rog didn't drag me through a lot of the sections so that quickened our trip by quite a bit. We scored some great Day-After sales there too, but have to confess, they were things for us, not holiday gifts! Rog found the new work boots he's been looking for and that alone made the hour trip worth while. (This pic is not very good, as I was rushed and it is from my phone.)

We attended a snowmobile kick off party in the mountains on Saturday night and got to visit with friends and have a good time. It was nice to see the snow starting to pile up! Last night it even snowed here at home, but it didn't accumulate much or stick around very long. Darn it!

Sunday we just relaxed and had a nice, quiet day together. I love cuddle-on-the-couch days! Watching movies, eating left-overs, just doing nothing! Those days don't come around to often, so I cherish them when they do!

Monday I joined in the Cyber-Monday madness for the very first time! It is the day they say there are the most people shopping on-line and so it has become a sale crazy day similar to Black Friday. There were two things for Melissa that I couldn't find on sale anywhere over the weekend so went to Overstock.com and bought them. Because I used PayPal I saved $20 off my $100 order (promotion only applies to certain retailers), didn't have to pay sales tax, and shipping was FREE! Quite a fabulous deal...I was very happy!!!! Some of the on-line sales are still running and the PayPal promotion goes for a while too. Shannon turned me on to this site: http://www.cybermonday.com/ Check it out!

enjoy your holiday memories!

-dw