Thanksgiving Weekend 2006

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I went to work for several hours. The original plan was to work, leave early if possible to do my turkey dinner as lunch, and then head over to Marla's in the evening for dinner. Well, not really Marla's as her plan had changed. She got the normal amount of stuff for her Thanksgiving dinner which is great, only thing this year her family is in Chicago so it would be only her, her husband and her 2 kids. So she decided to take her stuff to her friend's and cook there along with what her friend got and have dinner there. Sounds like a plan. I'll be there for dinner with dessert. I would be making a Cheesecake with a creamy topping and fresh raspberries and kiwi.

Work did not go as planned. It was fairly slow, but decided to stay the entire shift for the day. I couldn't pass up 7 hours including lunch at 1 1/2 times pay on such an easy day.

I was not able to make the cheesecake the day before, so I would need to get home, make the cheesecake, and then head over to dinner with Marla, her family, and friend. I got off work at 1:30 pm and was past 2:00 pm when I got home.

~brain-wandering, last year I was off and my mother came to visit. We went shopping at K-Mart that happened to be opened on Thanksgiving Day, we got some awesome deals, then went to dinner at Marla's house that was fully packed with her family and friends, we then headed to the Phoenix Zoolights. such a lovely day~

The plan for me now was to make the cheesecake, then head over to dinner with Marla and friends, and postpone the dinner with My cousin, who is also my roommate, and Aaron, also my roommate. However, I realized that what I had really wanted is to just stay and make dinner, even if it was just heating up the ready-meal, and have a relaxed afternoon/evening at home. So instead I started my dinner at home. This meant that dinner would be at around 5pm or 6pm. I don't remember if I called Marla or if she called, but decided we would try to get together the next day, Black Friday...

About 30 minutes before dinner was done, Jerry had waken up. He works nightshift at a store so he sleeps during the day, however he was off on Thanksgiving. We served ourselves, ate with no room for dessert and then just vegged out, the rest of the evening.


I woke up Friday morning at my usual time. On a normal work day I am up between 4:30 am - 5:00 am, but Friday's are my days off. I usually sleep in on this day which means getting up no later than 10am. That's really late for me.

I really wasn't going to shop 'till i dropped, just wanted to get a digital camera that was advertised at a really good price as a gift.

Target Stores kicked off their 2-day sale with doors opening on Friday at 6am. So I drive by my closest Target and there was maybe 20-40 people in line, so I decided to drive to check out a different location. I drove to the Target Greatland by the Chandler Fashion Mall. It's now 15 minutes before 6am and there must have been about 200 people lined up. The line extended from the entrance almost to the road of the shopping center. I am not about to wait in line for anything no matter how great the sale is. Third and last attempt. Drove to the Target in Ahwatukee and the line extended from the entrance all the way to the Mervyn's store which is on the other end of the shopping center. It was now just 3 minutes before 6am. So no thanks. No sale is great enough for me to stand in line and then try and "fight" with people on stuff. I will gladly pay regular price for anything than stoop to that level.

I drove back home, made a pot of coffee and turned on the news. The news had on of course video of the people lined up at Target and other stores, with some having camped out the night. An hour and a couple cups of coffee later, I decided I would go to Target. I went to a different location than the ones I had driven by earlier. It was now just past 7am. The parking lot was plenty full, but not as packed as I expected. My guess, the early birds were done and gone and the rest of the people were still sleeping off their Thanksgiving dinners from the night before.

Inside the store, most people were shopping the electronics and toys section, which is where I was headed. I did not find the camera that was advertised, however I was not going to waste my waking up early and not getting at least something. So I wandered around the store and found some neat deals on other stuff, not for gifts, but for me. :) So I now have a crock-pot, and I got it at an awesome price, a movie, and a new computer monitor. I also got a couple hand towels. The hand towels have a snowman on them to match with a hand soap dispenser from Avon shaped like a snowman that my mother gave me last year. I was most happy about the monitor. I have been wanting to update/upgrade computers for a while, so a new monitor is a first step. My old monitor was a bulky 15 inch, CRT I think it's called. Anyways, that one is going to Goodwill, I now have a 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor. So excited I can't even tell you.

Anyways, I got home and of course first thing I had to do is hook up my new Monitor. At first it seemed that it would not work, but I had not plugged in the cord correctly on the back of the monitor. So so excited, next step upgrade PC.

By this time it was close to noon and I was ready for a bite. I called Marla to see if we were still getting together, in my mind possibly having lunch, but when I called sounded like she had her hands full with her children. She said she'd call back. Waited about 10 minutes but something must have come up. So I made a turkey pot pie with some of the left over turkey and watched several episodes of Smallville. Watching back to back episodes makes the time fly by. Marla called back several hours later, so we should definitely get together sometime before the year ends.

It's X-mas time... I always kick of the season watching Christmas Vacation. So I popped that in as I started assembling the small fake x-mas tree. It's a small tree. I got it several years ago when my cousin moved from Texas, and we got an apt together. The tree seems small now that we are in a house, but it was the perfect size for the couple of apartments we got to use it in. Assembling it was as far as I got though as It was late and I just plopped down to finish watching the movie and then went to sleep. Aaron put up some snowy green garland on the hallway entrance and hung ornaments on the loops. It looks nice. I had a good day.

Saturday and Sunday of this weekend was my weekend to work. I work every other weekend. No luck leaving early on either day, but Amy was working on Saturday, so the day went by faster. Left work at 4:30pm got home after 5pm. Ate some left overs as I watched several more episodes of Smallville. I strung some lights on the tree. Aaron suggested I put colored lights, however the first x-mas I had with this tree I made it look quite elegant with all white non-blinking lights, with gorgeous silver, frost-white and red glass ornaments and perfectly made ribbon-bows. I loved the look of that first time so I have kept it similar, adding a few different ornaments each year. Last year I added perfectly matching ornaments in green. Each year My X-mas stuff grows by a couple of extra lights and decorations. This year is not the exception, but I still like my tree with just white lights. The only colored lights I have are for a pre-strung green garland that I got last year, and 2 sets of either 200 or 300 small lights used for the outside. Maybe I'll get a bigger tree in the future and decorate it with colored lights.




.... Updated 02/14/2010, link to Amy's bloghttp://thosecrazyschuberts.com/

Dwight... Thanksgiving.... and X-mas....

Yesterday I got the Dwight Schrute Bobble Head I had won at ebay... so excited.. not sure if I should keep him at work or at home? OH I also got some Thalia cds (Japanese versions of the ones I already have) and Mortal Kombat II for the SNES. I never had that game, but played it quite a bit back then when it came out. Thankfully I still have my old SNES to play it in... Oh and Target has the Seasons 1-3 of Smallville on sale for $14.88. That's right $14.88 I had originally gotten the first season at regular price and then realized if I kept buying them I would have spent tons of money on it. So am so glad that they are on sale. plus I get my 10% off.

I also went and got Viva Pinata at Target plus they were giving out $10 giftcard just for buying it. I don't have the Xbox 360, but eventually I will. Oh another thing I want to get that I haven't gotten a chance to is the Zune., however before I can get that I need a new computer. My computer is from 2000 and it is running Windows ME. Yeah I know old... So, I have been looking around. Originally I wanted a super beefed up computer from Alienware or Voodoo, but realized I don't really play as many PC games as I once used to. It would be really expensive if I did get one with all the additions I wanted that I really would not use.

Now on Thanksgiving that's already next week... I had decided that I would get a ready meal for that day since I was working. I still am. In past years I have either made it myself or bought it ready made from Albertson's or Safeway, but for X-mas. It was not really tradition for us to do any celebration for Thanksgiving. It is more an Anglo thing, and I am Hispanic/Latino who grew up in the border, my cousin the same, and Aaron is Native American. So yeah celebrating Thanksgiving is really not something that is on my mind, but I do love turkey. Anyways, I think I will be getting it from Supertarget though.

Albertsons had a very basic one for $39.99 Which is already more than what Jerry, Aaron, and I could eat in a week. It included Turkey (10-12lbs), Bread stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, choice of pie, and rolls.

Basha's has a fuller meal for $49.99 that includes Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, baked yams, green beans, gravy, cranberry/orange sauce, pumpkin pie, and rolls.

Safeway... I haven't been to Safeway in the longest time and have not seen their specials so I have no idea what they are offering as their ready meals this year.

Supertarget has theirs for $59.99 and includes 10- to 12-lb. Butter-Basted Turkey, 1.5-lbs. Fresh Green Beans with side of 15-oz. Lemon-butter Thyme Sauce, Potato Trio: 2-lbs. Traditional, 1-lb. Bacon Cheddar, 1-lb. Sweet, 2.5-lbs. Stuffing, 15-oz. Gravy, 15-oz. Cranberry Sauce, 12 Dinner Rolls, choice of pie, and it also includes appetizers Triple Créme Brie, Artichoke and Spinach Dip, Stone Ground Wheat Crackers, Honey Cashew Crunch

So it seems I get more bang for my buck at Supertarget and it's practically free. I will get 10% plus with all the OT gift cards I have received, this will be essentially free. However Supertarget, has pick-up days from Monday - Wednesday, I think they are closed on Thursday, while the others I believe are open part of the day on Thursday. So I may just do Thanksgiving a few days early for us at home since on Thursday I will be going over to Marla's and may even stop by at Nancy's also.

Now on X-mas... I need to locate the boxes where I have the x-mas stuff to sort and start decorating. I have not started x-mas shopping yet, however I don't have alot to get so it can wait for a while. I did get already most of the x-mas cards. That's the one thing I always do, send x-mas cards. X-mas cards make me happy. I don't really care so much about gifts 'cause I can always get myself what I want/need, but I do like cards. I have all my x-mas (and birthday cards) that I have received through the years stored by years, since 1998. That was the year I left home in the little town I lived in Texas.

Ok so now back to work.... Have a good day ya'll!!!

Thanksgiving coming...

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and still don't know what to do. I do know I am working the first part of the day. The first to invite me to their place was Nancy. She lives just down the road from me so it would make sense to go there after work. Marla also invited me to her Thanksgiving with her family. However, I kind of want to have my own Thanksgiving. I have several recipes for a Turkey but since I work I'll probably just order one of those complete meals from Albertson's that only need to be reheated. I have ordered them in the past and they do a pretty good job. I have ordered from Safeway and Albertson's before. Beats slaving over making my own. So that's it decision made...