Black Friday Reality Check

So here we are the week of Thanksgiving. What on earth? Where has the fall gone?

I am giddy about Thanksgiving, time to reflect, breakfast burritos, football, and barbeque.

Yes, barbeque.

More on that later this week.

I'm also doing the happy dance (which actually resembles laying on the couch in my Snuggie) at having all of my halls decked on November 22! This includes the outside lights (props to Brad and Joel and Joel's Ladder).

I'm decidedly unappreciative of all the naysayers who think this means that my heart is without Thankfulness and that we're just skipping over a grateful attitude to get to Christmas.

Honestly, I love combining "thanks" and "giving" (since they seem to go together anyway) and stretching the season.

I feel so relaxed and able to enjoy December now that my decorating and shopping (did I forget to mention that?) are finito.

As I'm sure many of you can relate, when you have December birthdays, class parties, church activities, trips to visit family, family visiting us, and a lot of Peppermint Mochas to drink, it's much less stressful to have the Dreaded Christmas Bins already emptied.

Now I can enjoy the beautiful Christmas lights in the morning when I trip over laundry (can't get it ALL done) on my way to the coffee maker.

On the shopping scene, we're keeping it REAL simple this year, so finishing that was not even a big accomplishment. A few deals here and there over the last month, and things feel great.

Despite my shopping being complete, I will still wake up at crack-thirty and hit the stores on Black Friday. Not to buy Christmas gifts necessarily, but to check out the crowds, steal some deals (did I mention we have some December birthdays?), and just have fun.

My "less is more" philosophy is guided by this photo:

That is Lilly, with the FREE calendar/planner I got from the nail salon last year. It was her absolute favorite gift and she is STILL playing with it as recently as last week.

Um, FREE.

See those wrapped presents behind her?

Yes, they were fun and the kids played with them and I love opening gifts as much (or quite possibly more) than the average person, but the FREE present gave her so much happiness.

I know I'm starting to sound like the Allstate Commercial Man who implies that we all love Jenga and Meatloaf, but maybe there is something to that...

The screams I'm hearing right now from ten kids out back on the trampoline remind me that a) playing creatively outside is free, and b) maybe I should put all that money I'm saving towards some kind of liability insurance.