Shop till you drop....

...and then work till you drop. That's how my day-after-Thanksgiving was. My mom, sisters, and I always wake up uber-early to hit the sales. I don't know how I've managed to be so lucky, but the last three years working at Target I've always closed or worked a mid-shift. This year we split up at the beginning, some of going to stand in line at Sears and some of at Wal-Mart. We all got in our lines at 4:30am and then joined up in line at Target at 5:45am. I always get weird looks from my unfortunate coworkers who are dealing with the crowds when they see me among the psycho shoppers. My dad calls this phenomenon "sports shopping". We aren't the gung-ho groups you see running down small children or anything, and we mostly go just for fun, although some of the deals are so incredible you'd have to be crazy not to get them. I love the fact that I can get all my Christmas shopping done in just about one day and then spend the rest of the season decorating, baking, and enjoying time with family. After we finished up with all the crazy shopping I had just enough time to change clothes and grab lunch before I had to go to work to clean up the madness.

Anyway....Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone! The past two weeks have been extremely crazy for me. My dad had a minor heart attack on Tues, Nov. 13th. He's fine now, taking it easy and resting a lot, trying to ease back into things. My sister came home from boot camp on emergency leave to be with the family, which was a blessing in disguise b/c that meant she got to spend Thanksgiving with us. Then my birthday was that Thursday, the 15th. Then we went into pre-Thanksgiving crazy-time with all the preparations. I always host Thanksgiving at my house for my whole family and Doug's parents. Usually it results in anywhere from 9-15 people eating. This year we only had 9, but still that's a lot of food to prepare. Suffice it to say I've been a mess the past two weeks.

Shortly after my birthday my friend Beth took me to see the Lipizzaner Stallions.

They were so elegant and regal. I'd never been to see them, but I recommend it to anyone who likes horses. Very entertaining!