I realize that this is about 3 weeks late, but we have had SO much going on that I haven't had the time or energy to sit down and write about it. (Post about what exactly has been going on to come soon)
My birthday was Nov. 24, the day before Thanksgiving. The day itself was pretty low key which was ok with me. Dan worked in the morning and had an eye dr. appt. after work. He got home around 1:30 in the afternoon, and we went to Souper Salad for lunch. Then, I remembered that I'd been wanting to go to Buy Buy Baby for a few weeks, but have never gone because it's so far out of the way from everything else over by Chandler Mall. But on my birthday, we were going to be going to dinner with my dad and step mom, who live in Chandler not too far from the mall. So I decided to take advantage of being in the area, and we went check out Buy Buy Baby. Dan didn't really want to go looking at baby stuff (not that he doesn't care, but he kinda doesn't lol, and just likes me to pick out whatever stuff I want), but since it was my birthday, he tagged along with me and took a pit stop in the glider section.
We went to Tia Rosas in Gilbert (our new favorite...we think we even like it better than the Mesa location) with my dad, step mom and my brother. We had an enjoyable dinner together and then returned to my dad's house to open a couple of gifts. Generally I get mostly cash for my birthday because everyone knows I am a crazy woman who does 3 am Black Friday shopping. This year was very much the same. I got 1 or 2 things, and the rest was cash.
Thanksgiving was the next day. It is usually a somewhat stressful holiday for us every year because we have so many places to go throughout the day and family we don't want to leave out. But this year wasn't too bad in the end.
We always start Thanksgiving at my mom's. We eat there usually around 11 or so when my grandparents get there with the food and everything. The other thing about Thanksgiving at my mom's, is that it's also a birthday celebration. My birthday is on the 24th, my younger brother's birthday is the 29th, and my grandma's is the 30th. So we always have an ice cream cake and open all of our gifts together on Thanksgiving. For this reason, we generally spend a little more time at my mom's.
We then make our way to Dan's family celebration which is always held at his grandparents in Mesa. All of his aunts, uncles and cousins gather together for football in the front yard, board games, and other fun activities.
After a few hours with Dan's family, it's on to my dad's for our 3rd Thanksgiving dinner. (Thankfully Dan's family has a buffet style meal so we can just eat what we want and can handle) Thanksgiving at my dad's wouldn't be complete without Thanksgiving Trivia, and sitting to look through the Black Friday ads after dinner. This year, I looked through the ads myself for a little while, but we were able to have many good laughs during trivia. Can't wait for Christmas Trivia!
We returned home around 11:20 that night, and waited a few minutes before heading to our local Wal Mart to pick up a few Black Friday doorbuster deals at midnight. Dan had never experienced Black Friday of any kind before, and didn't really want to go, but he didn't want me to go by myself that late to Wal Mart. I think by the time we left Wal Mart (around 12:45 am), he was glad he went to experience it. You can read about his experience here
Overall it was a successful Thanksgiving shared with our families, and it was fun to catch up with everyone. Round 2 of the holidays comes next week...Christmas!
