Thanksgiving weekend 2011

Thanksgiving weekend 2011 was pretty amazing. I got up early on Thursday and did the Utah Human Race 5K with Sharann. It was so much fun! We both wore our footie pajamas (with the foot rolled up and crammed into running shoes) because they encouraged costumes. I guess we thought our costume was, "4 day weekend bums" but really, we just wanted to wear those cause they are so comfy. We finished in good time for alternating walking and running but next year, we are running the whole thing.

Me and Dave went to my mom's house for the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I was looking at all the delicious things she prepared and thought, "Man! My mom busts her butt putting this whole dinner together." I am excited for when I get the chance to do the big meal on my own but slightly intimidated because of how well my mom does it. Everything was delicious and we visited with my siblings that came. My older sister was with her in laws so there was a lot of the kidlets missing this year.

After dinner we drove to Provo to pick up Dave's daughter, Cindy. She was my Black Friday shopping buddy. We recruited my 2 younger sisters and my best friend, Britta as well. We thought the Saratoga Springs Walmart would be our best bet because it's a newer one and last year it wasn't too bad. Dave had to work Friday morning so he opted out on the shopping madness. We arrived and the aisles were full of people and some were already stationed at the item they wanted, guarding it with their cart and entourage of family members. Britta is a well season Black Friday shopper so she put together the battle plan. One girl manned the cart with our purses buckled into the baby seat, the others stood in front of an item and grab as soon as they let the bulls loose. It wasn't too crazy but it was pretty squishy getting up to the item and then back out of the crowd. The worst part was trying to get up front to check out. My youngest sister is preparing to get her own apartment and she got a waffle iron, electric skillet, mini chopper, blender, Rubbermaid set and a  programmable coffeemaker for less than $70. 
Me and Cindy had planned to go home to sleep a few hours and then head back out to do some apparel shopping in the early morning. Well, we got back to my place, wrapped a few gifts and sat around chatting until nearly 3 am.  I missed all my alarms and we didn't get moving until almost 9 am. We tired ourselves out pretty quick with Rue 21 and Hobby Lobby. Cindy helped pick out some adorable ornaments for our candy themed Christmas tree. We holed up for the afternoon to decorate and wrap more gifts. Sporadically, we decided to go see The Help at the dollar theatre. I've seen it a few months before with Britta. I loved the book and Emma Stone is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses. Back at home, we watched movies while wrapping more gifts.

Saturday afternoon, Dave, Cindy and myself headed out to see Breaking Dawn Pt. 1. The theater was nearly empty and the movie was really good. I loved the Twilight book series and I felt that this part of the movie series really was as amazing as the books. Saturday evening, we rode Trax downtown to see Temple Square lit up. It was beautiful, the trains were packed and it was much colder than we anticipated. We took a few pictures and headed right back to Murray. Pictures will be uploaded once I figure out my new camera
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All in all, this weekend was top notch fun. Cindy is so fun to go anywhere with and I'm so glad she spent this time with us. I am not sure I will do Black Friday at Walmart again. Unless we find one that is out in the sticks because the Saratoga Springs one is just going to get busier next year and crowds give me mad anxiety. A lot of the sales we wanted were available online for until later Saturday afternoon so that might be the plan next time.

I can't believe it's December this week! I want to slow down time because I feel like we just finished with Christmas 2010 and here we are, less than 30 days from Christmas 2011.