I Am Thankful For My Warm Bed on Black Friday

I typically shun "Black Friday" figuring there is no way I'm going to let some retail marketing firm succeed at their mind games. I'm a psych major after all. It's done me no other tangible good, but it may keep me from falling for that crap.  I saw a report that Sears had exactly four, yes four of their black Friday top billed items. I don't know what time you have to be lined up in Sears parking lot to get the ridiculously cheap washer/dryer set, but I'm guessing it's going to interfere with Thanksgiving dinner. Then I remind myself of the year Wes got up way before the sun to stand in line at Best Buy. He returned mid day exhausted, war torn, and with a regularly priced digital camera. He waited in line over four hours to check out, because once your invested you can't quit. It's genius really. It happens that way all the time. Who gets the Barbie Jeep for 80 bucks? Somebody I presume, but I've never met them. And gosh darn it, if you are up at 4 AM, you are going to buy something.

I happen to roll over and glance at the clock at 5AM, (way late by Black Friday standards) and briefly considered heading out into the cold. To say I'm not a morning person, is an understatement as my family can attest. (I'm still a little bitter at Jake for the 2AM wake up call on the day he was born.) So predictably I rolled over into my warm bed, and slept for another heavenly two hours. I still don't feel like I missed out. I went to Fry's at a more reasonable 9:00 and scored myself a half priced fire pit, and a couple cheap ottomans. And the best find of the day was the 19 inch TV for my kitchen that Cheryl grabbed for me at Walmart for 99 bucks. She did get up at 3AM and was armed with two girls old enough to wait in lines, so I guess I should take back everything I said. Success can be found if you do it right.

It has finally cooled off enough to justify some marshmallow roasting in our new fire pit.

In other Thanksgiving weekend news...

 Cheryl and I ran in the 5K Turkey Waddle  Thanksgiving morning. It was to benefit Breanna, a 13-year old friend of Ellyse's that is fighting Leukemia. If her situation doesn't make you count your blessings, nothing will. She'll be embarrassed that I even mention this, but Cheryl has taken on a huge role in helping Breanna's family through this ordeal. The three siblings eat, play and sometimes spend the night at her place and you can tell by the numbers we were giving in the race, that she was one the first volunteers to show up Thanksgiving morning to help make this race possible. Cheryl's capacity for quiet charity has always been an inspiration to me..

 We took the boys to see the Sun Devils take on UCLA. It was picture perfect weather and a huge victory in an otherwise mediocre season for the Devils. Maybe we should have gone to some earlier games. It seems we are good luck for them...55 points later.

And we busted out the fake tree for another year. Looks like we won't have an angel up top this year as our ceilings have shrunk in the new house.

And last but certainly newsworthy, Wes neglected to shave over the long weekend only to discover that his facial hair has sprinkling of grey in it. How is it that we still feel 20 when the mirror keeps telling us otherwise? He shaved before I could take a picture... I guess he won't be playing Santa this year.