Happy Birthday Jennifer :)

I can't believe that Jennifer, my baby sister, is the big TWO ZERO! 20!! We went to Red Robbin (her favorite) and had a great lunch!

Black Friday!

I LOVE Black Friday! After Thanksgiving we went right to bed (about 11pm) and got up at 2:30AM! We got a lot of stuff, not as much as we have in the past, but the sales weren't as good this year. Oh well, we still had SO much fun! We really get competitive and we don't let anyone stand in between us and a good sale! Hahahaha! It's important to keep it fun though, there isn't anything on our list that would have ruined the holidays had we not been able to get it.

Our first stop was Kohl's which opened at 4am. We had the best timing, we got there about 3:40 and got a surprisingly good spot in line. In the 20 minutes it took for the store to open the line was wrapped around the building behind us! We got in fast, split up and headed off for our departments. Kristopher got back to the front first, so he saved us an AWESOME place in line and we were checked out and back in the car by 4:15!! Way better compared to last year's total check-out line time of 55 minutes!

Next we went to Wal-Mart. This was weird and annoying, but this is what you put up with for the best prices. The door busters officially started at 5am, but Wal-Mart is a 24 hour store, so we weren't really sure how that would work. Basically, they had everything that was on their big sale in these big green card-board crates up and down the middle of all the main isles, but they were heavily guarded by employees. We were allowed to touch and look, but we weren't allowed to take until 5am. This was a very strict rule too, because if you managed to grab something that was on the door buster sale, if any of the employees saw it in your cart, they would make you take it out or they would take it away from you! I had my own experience with this. I wanted to get some jeans for my dad for Christmas, so I finally found 2 of the right size and there was only like 1 more pair, so I wanted to keep them. The employees all walked away and no one was watching me, so I hugged them really close to my chest and booked it out of that department back to Kristopher who had the cart! We put them in the front and put my purse in front of them so they weren't as noticeable. Well that didn't work, about 20 minutes later someone walked by and checked them and then took them away from him!!! Geesh, they're JEANS! Everyone was staking their spot next to all of the items they wanted, so I had Kris down by the Crayola Glow Stations and I was down by the vacuums (only $9!! I got pink!) and I still needed more people to go to my other hot spots. Once the workers said "Start shopping!" it was pure madness! It sounded like a bee-hive when all the bees get mad, it was quiet and then all of a sudden got super loud! We grabbed our stuff at our stations, and met back up and ran over to the next station. PJs were flying through the air, sizes were being screamed at the top of lungs, everyone was guarding their claims, LOL...it was SO fun! I got about everything on my list other than a few personal (non-gift) items, so no biggie. But I got all the important ones!


Kristopher "trying" to wake up at 2:30am!

Me---up and ready to go!

Once we got home...my loot! Not even all of it!!

Me putting together my new fireplace! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Only took 2 hours...piece of cake!
FINISHED!! I LOVE IT!

Thanskgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving :) We are very thankful for our wonderful family, friends, and each other :) We had a deliciouse dinner and then watched the first official Christmas movie of the season...Elf! I had to work, and that was crummy, but I'm thankful I have a job! Here are some pictures from after dinner, we never seem to take any of the actual dinner, lol! Maybe next year...

Starting Christmas!

I know it's a tad early, but I'm really just too busy to wait until after Thanksgiving, so I started decorating! I haven't gotten a lot done yet, but I'm trying new things and trying to be creative to save money. I'm actually really impressed w/how great some very simple ideas look! And they were free :) So here's the first set of decoration pictures, more will follow over the next couple of weeks. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!


These are some of the Chrsitmas cards I've started making :)

This is one of my favorite FREE decorations, I just took an empty vase and filled it with all my old Christmas cookie cutters! I love it :)

My "Up On The Roof Top" decoration that I got last year, the Santa Key, and the berry wreath.

This is a wreath that I made, it's really pretty in person, the photo doesn't do it justice.

On top of the bookshelves out in the formal living room.

Also on top of the bookshelves.

Mistletoe, of course :)

Bookshelves...

Bookshelves...

Bookshelves...

Bookshelves again, lol...

This is another great idea that I love! These are huge cookie cutters and so I put some ribbon on them and hung them from the kitchen window! :)

Close up...

The swags by the fridge and some of the cards hanging on the wall.

The ONLY time I drink regular Coke is at Christmas, and this can is why :) I just LOVE it and I can't help it!

My card garland, it took FOREVER and was a huge pain, but looks SO great! Thanks Kimmie for the idea :)

more card garland....

More...

Well that's about it for now!