Like a lot of people, this is my favorite time of the year! I LOVE everything about Christmas and getting ready for Christmas. Our family has many traditions as we prepare for the big day. One tradition is to put up our tree and order pizza the weekend before Thanksgiving.
The girls also have small trees in their rooms they get to decorate.
Another tradition is to go to the Arlington Christmas parade. Ava was in the Faith Arlington float so we dropped her off at the church while we found our spot along the parade route.
Dalton was with Michael for part of the parade so Elia and Cami entertained each other while we waited for the parade to start.
We enjoyed watching all the floats go by! We are proud to live in such a great community!!!
Ava's float was the second to last float to come by so she was pretty much over the whole thing by the time she passed us. LOL! Have you ever seen such a bored angel?
Of course, you can't have a parade without the big man himself!!!
After the parade we all went to Rizzi's pizza which was packed. The kids had fun though playing with our phones.
As we were leaving Rizzi's, there was a band setting up complete with electric guitars and drums. Ava was completely taken by the guitarist until the drummer walked in. She made the comment that the drummer was "not hot hot, but hot." This is the same guy that nearly scared Kevin to death as he walked past him in the door. Lord, help us now. We have a long road ahead of us with Ava. LOL!
Another tradition we have is to see Santa and pick out Hallmark ornaments. We decided to see Santa at Bass Pro this year which was wonderful. There was no line, we got a free picture, and the girls got to play some free games.
After Santa we went to Hallmark and picked out our ornaments. I got ET which was my favorite movie when I was little. It's hard to believe it is the 30th anniversary of ET. (I couldn't be that old!)
Kevin picked out a milk and cookie ornament which sings "Let's Get it On." Pretty funny! Elia made the comment that the ornament is "very disturbing". HA!
Elia picked out the hippo ornament because it sings "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas".
Ava picked out a cute Hallmark character ornament which says funny things about wanting Santa to come now. It is so fun to pull out our ornaments from year to year and remember certain memories related to each one.
After we picked out our ornaments and ate dinner, we went to Nana and Pepaw's house. We climbed in their attic and found all kinds of Christmas treasures. Ava loved the santa and snowman that she put in her room. I can't wait to decorate with her Santa collection and her Christmas village.
Merry Christmas!
For those of you who know me, know how seriously I take Black Friday shopping! This year was no exception! Our Black Friday Team designed and ordered our t-shirts back in September. We were so excited when they were delivered!
Our MVS (most valuable shopper) last year was Qua! She was determined to be MVS again this year!
Of course, there is a lot of planning that goes into Black Friday shopping. You have to make your budget, cut your coupons, make your list according to store and price, and know your route. I made sure the team had color coded maps and plans for the night. These proved to be very effective!
We all met at my house at 4pm on Thanksgiving afternoon. We had to go over our color coded plan and add/delete anything of importance. Then we were ready to shop. We left the house at 4:30 and we made it to the Oakland Walmart by 4:45.
Of course, Carol is now allowed to drive (a written rule on the shirts) so I drove the momma mobile!
We were amazed at how easy it was to find and load our baskets. We had everything loaded and ready to go by 5pm.
Of course, we all needed big ticket items which were not supposed to be released until 10pm. So we all found our lines and sat and waited and waited and waited. They even issued bathroom passes if you needed a break.
Some of the big ticket items were released at 9pm which was nice so we loaded up Kevin's truck and we were on our way.
By the time we checked out at Walmart and loaded everything into the truck, it was about 11pm. It was time for a 5 hour energy drink. (Not sure these really helped by the time 4am rolled around.)
After Walmart we headed to Target where we got everything our list and stood in a Walt Disney World line. The line literally wove in between every aisle all the way back to the Christmas section.
By 1:30am, we were eating at Chick-fil-A at the mall where we met up with the rest of our team.
Then we hit the stores in the mall and once again, got everything on our lists.
By 5:00am we were back at my house where we had to divide up all the packages and load into everyone's car.
Once again, Back Friday was a complete success!! Until next year 2013........................
