Thanksgiving Staycation

The husband is offered one personal paid day off per calendar year. He likes to utilize that day around Thanksgiving so that we could have some extra time together around the holiday. His job recently instated a new rule that you could have the holiday off as long as you placed yourself on the "I will work if needed" list. Meaning that at a moments notice he would have to report to work and if he chose not to...it would be an unpaid day. This meant that he had Thanksgiving off (sorta) as well as Friday for his personal day and he also took off Monday so that we could have five whole days together. This hadn't happened since we got married, four years ago. We are not big travelers, heck he hasn't even been in a plane before! We decided to have a staycation. We would stay home, preparing for Christmas, shopping and spending as much time together as we could before getting sick of each other. Kidding. Mostly.

Instead of cooking a big meal on the actual day of Thanksigiving, we decided to leave that for Friday. We spent the holiday delivering cupcakes to my family and going to the best friend's house to enjoy their deep fried turkey. YUM! She makes the best food. Her homemade potatoes are creamy, the turkey was moist and the pumpkin pie was to die for. (So the husband said, I hate pumpkin pie!) We hurried to get the dishes in the sink so that we could make it to Walmart in time for their first sale event at 6 o'clock! Call us crazy, but we love that sales are now offered on Thanksgiving. We make it our goal to get all of our Christmas shopping done before December first. Shopping these amazing deals allows us to save a ton of money. People are passionate about stating that it isn't fair that others have to work on Thanksgiving to help run the sales and that they should be home with their family. Hogwash. My husband always has to work the holidays and what about the troops that cannot even see their families during this time?  Be grateful that you have a job during this rough economy. Rant over.

Caramel apple cupcakes with a caramel on top of caramel apple flavored icing and Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. 

Walmart ended up being more chaotic that I had anticipated. People were grabbing things off the shelves before they were supposed to and many items that were advertised, were not even in the store. We left frustrated with many things not crossed of our list. We then made our way to Target where we had to stand around the darkest spot of the the building for over an hour before doors opened. I sat on the concrete where I proceeded to lose all feeling in my lower extremities. There was a moment where I was sure that hypothermia was setting in. It didn't help that I had come down with a nasty cold just days prior. This made it hard to taste on the one day that food is most important to me. Perfect timing. The anticipation was getting high when we finally saw the line start moving. People were trying to cut in front of us and push their way to the front. Not going to happen. My husband is a big guy at 6'4" and 250+ pounds. He did a great job of holding them back while we made our way to the door. I liked having security present for the out of control shoppers!

Target was much less chaotic than Walmart. They were organized and had everything on our list that we intended to buy. We split up at first to insure that we got all of the doorbusters that we wanted. A Nook HD for $80! Yes please. It has better reviews and the same specs as the iPad Mini for a fraction of the price. Oh and a Blu-Ray DVD player with WIFI for under sixty. Merry Christmas to us. Hellllllo Netflix in our bedroom.

Checkout was a breeze (besides finding out much later that there was a security breech!) and we left feeling like we had gotten a lot accomplished and checked off of our list. We dropped stuff off at home and headed to the local mall to stock up on products from Bath and Body Works. Did you know that you can use unlimited amounts of coupons on Black Friday?? You're welcome. They even had a limited edition candle available that day; mint buttercream. After grabbing the VIP tote ($110 value), my limited edition candle, eight wallflowers, fourteen soaps, 6 hand sanitizers with two holders and some perfume, my total came to $276.50! With my coupons I only paid $80.46 including $6.78 in tax. CHA-CHING. That's what I call saving money. I love a good deal. We got home a little after 1 am and promptly fell asleep.

The reciept was almost as tall as I am! $202.82 in savings!!

Friday we made our Thanksgiving dinner and sorted through our shopping haul. We also started the process of bringing out all of our decorations. We decided to get the outside done first because it would end up being our only dry day.

The linen pumpkin napkins were found last year after the holidays. Got two, two packs for under a dollar! Oh and we make our turkey in the crockpot. It is easy and turns our perfectly moist each time.

Saturday was the day that we would decorate until our bodies hurt. Thank goodness we only had the inside to get done. This was our favorite part! We blared the music while I bossed the husband around as we decorated in our best holiday spirit.

My favorite addition this year were the paper snowflakes. Found them at target for a couple of dollars. I also liked our metal NOEL sign, also found at Target. Hello, my name is Melissa and I have a Target addiction.

We even got a light dusting of snow during our staycation, which made it even more perfect. And by "light" I mean barely enough to cover the grass. Better than nothing?

Sunday was our day to treat ourselves to our favorite buffet restaurant. I mean, why not? We already ate our weight in Thanksgiving food, why not stretch our pants to the seam and continue on our gorging path? To my delight, the buffet had two new fountains to go along with their chocolate one. White chocolate and caramel! HALLELUJAH! The angels have never sang louder. I also indulged in my favorite garlic and cheese biscuits and mini corn dogs dipped in mustard. Fat girl heaven.

Below is a video of one of our favorite light displays we enjoyed after dinner. We go each year and make sure to bring along a donation. This year the home owner had collected 1400 pounds of food and over $3000 dollars, he was even featured on the local news! He does a great job and adds something special year after year.

Monday was our day to recuperate. We watched our fair share of movies, caught up on reading and enjoyed some quality time together. It could't have been more perfect.

Real men use Snuggies.