Bring on Christmas!

Thanksgiving was great and my pies were a big success, if I do say so myself. 

All of the dinner and dessert helped fuel  our black Friday shopping. 

My SIL, our friend Rochelle, and I left the house around 9:30pm on Thanksgiving  to get in line at Target. Wooohoooo! This is a tradition of ours. My SIL and I have been doing this since she started dating my bro. Such good times. 

We went to Target, Best buy, the mall, Tai pan and I went to Costco with my mom. We actually did walk into Walmart about three hours after it had opened and walked back out because it was still crazy. I don't do Walmart the day after. Any way, we were able to get everything we needed. YAY!

This:

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This:

After all was said and done, I finally arrived home by 10:30 am the day after thanksgiving. I had been awake for 24 hrs and shopping for 12. Needless to say, I passed out for quite some time. 

When I finally woke from the dead, I discovered that I had come down with a horrible head cold. :-( That's what I get for pushing myself all week long and working with minimal sleep. BLARG! I was going to get the rest of my Christmas stuff up that day but because of the cold I ended up using the whole weekend to get it up. It definitely took longer than I had planned but the end result was, in my opinion, worth it. :-D  

Its Thanksgiving! Holy smokes, Thanksgiving is already here!!! Time flies when life is bursting with things to do. 

This past month has been full. I was so hoping to get my Christmas stuff up before thanksgiving but alas, that didn't happen. 

I am on my third shift in a row. I hate working three in a row. I know it doesn't sound bad but you just don't feel normal and can't really get anything done.

All week I have been getting up early  to make pies for thanksgiving. 

Yes I am making that many pies. ;-) 

I am trying to cater to the people I love. People with trials that get them down every day. 

My dear SIL with celiacs, that doesn't get to enjoy the rolls and stuffing etc., and my dear dad with diabetes,  that tries really hard to not eat sugar. 

So, I made sure to make a sugar free pie for my dad and gluten free pie for my SIL. Then of course a few pies for the rest of us. 

I have also been working really hard on finishing my hutch. I really want it done before the holidays. Oh AND we got our wood floors in! IT LOOKS AWESOME! Thanks to some amazing family help. 

With all this busy work, the completely torn up house (due to floor instillation) and the lack of sleep, I have been pretty grumpy and definitely a little stressed. Most definitely not very thankful. Sometimes I find myself so caught up in the 'poor me's and 'life's so hard's that I forget to be thankful for the little things. 

So, tonight, while I was pretending to work, I was reading the NieNie Dialogues here. 

That women is AMAZING! 

I was, yet again, truly humbled by her intense amount of faith and perseverance. It made me take a moment to think about all the things I have been blessed with and there couldn't be a more perfect time than today to take a moment and express my gratitude.

I am so very grateful for: 

• Wonderful, patient, family that spends 2, and some change, full days helping us install wood floors. 
• An amazing husband that lets me have as many total meltdowns as I want. 
• When my beautiful dog crawls up right next to me early in the morning and rubs her soft head against my face and cuddles with me for an hour or more. (helps remind me that I really do love her even when she digs up my yard.)
• A job that I love.
• A perfect assessment at my recent neurology appointment. 
• A great mom and SIL that let me call and talk to them all the way to work. 
• Last but most certainly not least.......BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING!!!!!!!!

Here is our gorgeous new floor!