Thanksgiving morning we headed to my parent's house just outside of Charlottesville to have my mom's feast with my sister and her fiance. It was great seeing everyone and the food was absolutely delicious. Straight out of a Paula Deen look book, but even better tasting! She honored all of the "kids" requests for their favorites; mine being macaroni and cheese and the not-so-traditional macaroni salad, she "owed" me from the past couple of times I'd requested it and she didn't come through! ;). And of course my sister's favorite, homemade, from scratch, fresh from the oven sourdough bread, yuummm!! We had all of the traditional southern sides, green beans, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce and more. Then the greatest mom ever whipped out F.O.U.R, yes I said 4 homemade desserts. She was determined to cater to each family member's sweet tooth. Pineapple Chiffon Cake for moi, Italian Creme Cake for my dad, Carrot Cake for my hubby and Pecan Pie for my sis and her fiance. Can we say my mother is a cooking and baking goddess!! Thank you mom for an amazing feast and being such a wonderful cook and mom!
After the usual over indulging we were sent to the in-law's with oodles of leftovers, including mac and cheese and helpings of each dessert. Yum!
We then headed to my hub's home to be greeted by my ever-so-cute niece, my hub's parent's, brother and sister-in-law. And we ate again! The highlight of his mom's cooking, in my opinion, is always the green bean casserole and my sis-in-law's Turkey and Wild Rice soup to kick off the meal. I'm still getting used to having soup as the starter on Thanksgiving, as my family never had soup, but it's delicious and I can't wait to make some thanks to her generosity and sharing the secret recipe. The other highlight of the meal was my niece's obsession with the homemade mac and cheese. I think she could have eaten the entire dish had we let her. After dinner we played and giggled in between my sis-in-law and I tearing through the Pink Friday ads to map out our plan of attack. We ended the night with two fun games of Scrabble, which I won, before the SIL and I headed out on our Pink Friday adventure.
I normally do Black Friday with my mom and sis but since I wasn't in Charlottesville, I talked my SIL into going with me. This year was a different approach from the 5am start. The outlets about 30 minutes away were doing the "midnight madness" thing and so we decided this would work best since we were already up and since I'm SO not a morning person. We mapped out our plan of attack while en route and decided to hit up Banana Republic first and work our way to Gymboree (a must on the SIL's list) and through the mall. Banana was having a fabulous sale, 50% off the entire store! Plus I had a 15% off your total purchase coupons so I really made out. I found lots of fabulous things and walked away with almost $600 worth of clothes for just under $200! Sadly enough, it was all for myself! My SIL worked the line while I tried on clothes and thanks to BR's efficient line we were out the door in under 5 minutes and onto our next stop by 12:20am. This wasn't the case when we hit Gymboree for my niece. The only good part was it was our 2nd stop so we were plenty engergized, thank God. Gymboree was having a great sale too, lots of huge markdowns and cute Christmas pj's for the kiddies for only $5.99! We grabbed some pink gingerbread ones for my niece, a true classic! The SIL and I enabled the teamwork approach and it worked for the most part. She'd grab stuff and I'd hold it or ask for the needed size and wait on it. Two hands are much better than one when trying to snatch clothes, hairbows, tights and accessories amidst a mob of pregnant ladies and grandmas. Then came the exhausting and never ending line. About 15 minutes in we noticed the line was a bit lengthy so I jumped in it while my SIL finished shopping to cut down on our wait time. I shouldn't gotten in line the second my foot hit the Gymboree floor. An HOUR AND A HALF later we finally got to check out! This was only after taking breaks from the line for a change of scenery, coffee and to check out other stores. I figured we'd be seeing daylight by the time we left Gymboree but it was still dark out. We then headed to Kirklands, the Nike Store, Gap, just to name a few, and last but not least Homegoods! I was so exhausted by the time we go to Ralph Lauren that I decided to forego it. The store looked trashed with clothes strung everywhere and I decided I didn't have the energy to dig.
Here was my big purchase of the day...
JUST KIDDING! But can you believe that! These REAL lollipops, that weighed a ton, were $30 at Homegoods! Who in the world would buy that! It was so hysterical, to our sleep deprived selves, that I had take a picture! I failed to look at the nutrition info on the back, I can only imagine!
Our pink Friday was a huge success and lots of fun with lots of laughs to keep us sane. And most suprising of all was that we didn't encounter a single rude, angry or overcrazed shopper, nor did we witness any fighting! Success, I think so!
How did you make out on Pink Friday?
November 26 - Personalized Ornaments
J. Crew is offering 20% off sale items through November 29th! The code is "EXTRA20" and is only good on sale items! They're also offering free shipping on orders of $150 or more. 
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