And we're back...

I've been on a bit of a hiatus lately due to the fact that this week has been the week from

H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks.

The ModBod had it's annual Black Friday Sale, so this week was spent moving inventory and setting up for this heinous event. I swear I will never get up that early to go shopping ever. No matter how good the deals are. Unless you can promise that I will win some kind of expensive car. But it must be a guarantee. These women are crazy and ruthless.

Needless to say, I'm glad it's over. It's always kind of stressful, but in the end it's a little tiny bit fun. It was just particularly bad this year because I pretty much planned and set up the entire thing by myself. Oh well.

Tommy came and worked it with me from 9:30 at night (it started at 11) until 6 in the morning. That made it better.

This was taken before the mayhem began, at about 10:30. Everyone was gearing up...

This was post-massacre, after the line had slowed down enough for me to walk around a bit, about 2:00 am.

Side note for shoppers. At sales like this, often times you can get just as good deals when you go later, after they have time to put back the mess that was made by everyone throwing stuff all over the place. We always find stuff to re-fill our doorbuster bins.

Of course this doesn't work at, say, Best Buy, but at smaller ones, I'd put my money on it.

Thanksgiving Day, although it was a bit clouded over by the impending doom of the sale, was very nice. Ben and Erica, their little boy Ethan, and Tommy all came to eat with us. We had quite the spread. It was a fun first Thanksgiving in our new house.

Here's the meal. It was Yummy. Sadly enough, our table looked just about the same after we dinished eating. There was so much food, we hardly put a dent in it. And yes, that is both Ham and Turkey, and Potato Casserole and Mashed Potatoes. Justin won't have it any other way.

We got our Christmas tree today! I was adamant that we needed to get it early because otherwise, it's kind of silly to spend money on a tree that you only enjoy for a week. And my apologies to all you enviroment-friendly folks: I like real trees. I know I'm a life killer. Oh well. Sorry.
Anyway, Here it is.

I guess Calvin thought it would be fun to help us. He was quickly distracted.

by a jingle bell. It was one of the ornaments I had bought, but it broke, so we gave it to him to play with.

It rolls, makes a lot of noise, and is shiny. Golden combination for kitties.

This jingle bell was momentarily put aside to scope out some more pressing noises.

A Calvin's -Eye view of our tree. Don't those red things look tempting?

He's on Christmas overload.

Back to the jingle bell.

Then he discovered there's water in the base. AWESOME!

Notice the beautiful tree skirt! My mom made it for us to bring a little of home to our first Christmas alone. It's so pretty, and the berries served as the inspiration for the tree. I just love the colors she chose! Greens and Golds and Red. So nice. She's so talented!

The nice man at the tree stand gave me a few extra branches so I can make a wreath out of them. I don't really know how, but I think I can figure it out. If not, I'll make something out of them for the front door, if nothing more than tying a bunch of them together with a pretty bow.

I put together a few other decorations including a centerpiece for our table,

which is what this is.

I got these shiny gold leaf things, which looks much prettier in real life. They are glittery, which I usually stay away from, but they are really pretty.

Here's the tree again.

Tonight our friends Brian and Chrissie came over to see us. They're in town from San Diego, where Brian is at Law School. It was great to see them!

We went to Target to find a Star for the top of the tree.

On our way home, we went to the Spanish Fork "Festival of Lights" which we've seen blinking signs for all over the place. It was one of those things you drive through, and although it was a bit cheesy, it was a lot of fun, and a neat way to start off the Holiday season. I appreciated Justin for pretending to like it, eventhough it was totally not his thing. He's good to me.

My favorite part was the life-size T-Rex with a Santa hat on. And the Stegosaurus. I guess it doesn't matter what you make out of lights, as long as it has a santa hat on it, it's totally Christmasy.

I wish I'd had my camera so I could display the evidence to you all.

Lastly, but not leastly:

My family has a tradition of eating Maple Pecan Buns on Thanksgiving morning. This was my first time making them, and they turned out so yummy. Obviously, because by the time I took the picture I had already eaten two.

So I put them on a plate so no one would notice if I ate two more.