Quiet and Peaceful

We had a nice Thanksgiving yesterday. It was quiet and low key. The meal was basic so I wasn't in the kitchen all day. It was a wonderful day spent being thankful for all of our many blessings. We worked on and completed our Advent Calendar activities. Madison cut them out and put them into the little doors and can't wait to start opening them on the 1st of December. I hope my first year attempt at this wasn't too ambitious, we'll see I suppose. We will be doing lots of baking, crafts and a few outings including our usual trip to the Santa Train Rides. It's going to be a fun December filled with lots of Christmastime fun!
Today is Black Friday. I usually always go shopping on this day and was planning to again but what we REALLY wanted to get we didn't have a shot at. They had a very good price on a laptop computer at a couple of stores. I have really been wanting one for school. Timing is off as money is tight but Eric is confident he'll be returning to work after the New Year (albeit out of town, possibly state) so it was a tiny bit less scary to buy one but I still wasn't sure. Well, Eric called Wal-Mart last night to ask them what the procedure was and they told him people were ALREADY in line for the 5:00 a.m. sales. Sheesh! There was no way I was getting out of bed and going to Wal-Mart to spend the entire night in line. I went to Wal-Mart this morning around 5:45 a.m. to get a few other things for the girls and it was ridiculous. That was the first time I ever went to Wal-Mart on Black Friday. When I was driving up the hill to get there I saw people wheeling their shopping carts all the way down to the Arby's parking lot, it was quite something. I grabbed a couple of things but couldn't find the rest so I just put my stuff back and left. The lines were so long it wasn't worth it. After that I headed to Bed, Bath & Beyond for a Gingerbread House and there were no lines, yippee! After that I headed to Fred Meyer and could breath much easier. Although there is always quite a crowd rummaging through the socks it wasn't bad at all. I stocked up on socks for me and the girls (Eric always gets plenty from his mom for Christmas) and shopped around Fred Meyer for at least an hour. There were plenty of people there but nothing too crazy and I was able to get where I needed and what I wanted to get. By the time I was done there was a lot of pink in my cart, the girls will be happy with their princess Christmas I'm sure. I didn't go overboard but got them both some sleeping bags for camping next year that I think they will love. A quick stop to Pier One rounded off my outing and I was home before everyone was out of bed. All in all I got some good deals and had fun (aside from being at Wal-Mart).
Madison has been having a hard time with picking up toys lately. Tonight she lost the privilege of staying up to watch some of the Ice Age 2 movie that is going to be on. I was very conscious of treating her as though she was someone else's child and being very matter-of-fact but that tantrum lasted the good part of an hour. I was exhausted by the time it was done, she was too. She's doing fine now but she may start up again just before bedtime. Seriously, I can understand why parents give in. It's so much easier than to actually follow through. She flat out refused to clean up at all tonight so I knew we had to really make the consequence something that she would remember.
My eyes are not seeing straight, that 3:15 a.m. alarm wake up is hitting me hard so I'll close for today. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!