I love Thanksgiving. And when I realized that this could possibly have been my last Thanksgiving at home for a couple years, I tired to cherish every bit of it as much as possible. It's gonna be so weird being away from my family...especially during the holiday. But I am so grateful that I'll get to be with my husband. Anyways, Thanksgiving started off just like it does every year...some good old Turkey Bowl. Every Thanksgiving, our ward (mostly the men) plays hardcore flag football for a couple hours. Everybody comes out to support, hang out, and laugh at the OG's trying to take out the young men. It's super fun and it's something I really look forward to. I'm definitely gonna miss this.
They play football at the park right in my neighborhood and my grandma's house is right across the street. Since my family does lunch there, we all just make our way over to the house after football. I love having a huge family that is super close. You would think it would be hard to get everyone together having so many people, but somehow we manage to do it for every occasion. After we stuff ourselves to the limit, me, my mom, and all my aunties pull out the black friday ads and the maps of the stores and get down to business.
I am not kidding when I say we are serious black friday peeps. Everyone makes their lists of what they need and then we put the lists together so we know how much of everything we need to grab. This year, we all headed to Wal-Mart at around 7:00 pm. We're each assigned a station and my mom makes sure we stay put and get what we need to get. Since there's like 10 of us that go, we usually cover everything we need pretty fast. It's hilarious how people end up making deals with each other, hearing the first timers talk about how nervous they are, and then watching everybody get all tense right before 10:00 and midnight. But my favorite part is when they start cutting the shrink wrap open and all you hear is screams and big guys fighting over sewing machines and dress-up treasure chests. I would go just for the experience! We stayed for the 10:00 and 12:00 Blitz then headed over to Macy's. It was ridiculous. We stood in line for almost 2 hours there! They need more cashiers. Or maybe just some faster moving cashiers. After Macy's, we headed down to Sear's and waited in line until they opened at 4:00 am. Sear's was even more ridiculous than Macy's. The electronics section was a mess. I ended up ordering my aunty's camera on my iPhone while she stood in line waiting for it. We finally got out of Sear's and I was tapped out by then. My feet were killing me, I was starving, and my eyes were fighting to stay open. I finally got home at around 5:00 am and I knocked out. Even though I was super tired, it was all worth it. Now you know I wasn't kidding when I say we're serious black friday shoppers! We even train like the crazy lady on the target commercials! Just kidding. Lol.
Well aside from that black friday crazyness, it was a very close to perfect Thanksgiving. Having my husband with me would have made it more than perfect, but I'm hanging in there. I'm so grateful for all that Heavenly Father blesses me with. I'm grateful for my family and the closeness that we share. I'm grateful for my eternal companion and for the love we have for each other. I am grateful for the educational opportunities both my husband and I have received. I am grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and to have knowledge of the gospel. There is so much I have to be grateful for and I know I am blessed in so many ways.
Let the holiday season begin :)
