Giving Thanks .

For the first time in our 9 years of marriage we hosted Thanksgiving at our house.

Also, for the first time in our 9 years of marriage, we broke out our formal china and crystal.

Admittedly, the only reason we hosted this year was because it was just us and Mom & Dad, but I was delighted they entrusted us with this great responsibility.  

And the responsibility of the turkey.  We cooked it on the Big Green Egg and, oh my goodness, it was incredible!  And that was after we realized that the thermometer was not working properly and the turkey had been cooking at 100 degrees + higher than what it was supposed to cook at.  Imagine how delicious it would have been if cooked as planned! 

A little crispy on the outside, but juicy on the inside!

Nana and G-Daddy with their best girl!

Dad showing off our our turkey

The Sanford clan.  Mason did not get to enjoy the fine china, but he did enjoy our finest plastic!

It was a great afternoon!

We could have fed an army with the amount of food we had, but that's just how my Mom rolls.  It wouldn't be the same if we didn't have leftovers for a week +.

Mom and Dad took the kids home so Peter and I could do a little Christmas shopping.  Our adventures began at Toys R Us on Thursday night at 10pm.  The line just to get into the store was insanely long, and we decided that standing in line for hours just so we could snag some $4 Nerf guns was ridiculous. 

We decided to ditch our original plans and head on over to Walmart.  Their black Friday sale began at midnight.  We figured that we'd go ahead and stake out the place and then wait around for the deals to begin.  An hour and a half early. 

I thought we were crazy, but in fact, it was the smartest decision we made in our black Friday shopping endeavors.  Turns out that all of the deals were in crates wrapped in plastic  all around the store.  We had specific items in mind, so once we found them, Peter and I grabbed our carts and took our positions.  We were ready to go.  And go we did.

We pretty much got everything on our list that we wanted to snag.  My neighbors, on the other hand, showed up at 11:30 and got nothing.  

Smartest decision of the evening, despite the fact that our credit card ended up with a fraud alert on it, and we weren't able to use it for most of the day on Friday.

Oh, the things we do for our children.  And for storage solutions*.

*on sale for $2.  woot!