The Day After Thanksgiving.

Yes, we did it. We joined the millions of people who gather the day after Thanksgiving to fight for the best deals at stores everywhere in the U.S. :)

After a traditional and extremely delicious Thanksgiving (with our friends we lived with for awhile last spring while remodeling), we rolled into bed...and about 4 hours later, our alarms started buzzing.

I remember walking into my beautiful walk-in-closet at the late...er...early hour and thinking, "Why in the world, are we doing this?"

We had never gone before - partly because Mom isn't a big shopper and partly because we have never really wanted anything before. This year, we had seen some good deals. But honestly, we just wanted to see if it was really like they said. :)

So, we did. And it was like nothing I have ever seen before. The stores were packed with tired, greasy-haired, determined people, who were going to let nothing stop them from the best deals.

And I can't say I blame them (in moderation, of course). :D We got a very nice Christmas present for a certain member of our family for basically free - $3. We also got a new crock-pot for $4. We got some absolutely adorable (and practical) things, but I don't want to talk about them b/c many will be underneath the Christmas tree on Dec. 25. :)

Ah...yes, Christmas tree. When we arrived home after seven hours of shopping, we turned on some beautiful Christmas music, pulled out our Christmas tree, and danced around the living room placing picture-perfect ornaments on the tree, without the slightest disagreement. (ha!)

hehe, *clears throat* actually, it wasn't quite like that. :)

Every year, the same conversation comes up. One member of the family (this year it happened to be Rosy) really wants the Christmas tree to look beautiful...only using our red & gold balls instead of the homemade ornaments. While at the same time, another member of our family desires to use every single homemade and old family ornament. This year, that happened to be Tommy.

Last time, it was Livy and Rosy...and the year before that it was Me and Livy, and I don't really remember before that(hehe)...It must be a family tradition. ;0)

So, as the lovely Christmas music played in the background, Rosy drifted from box to box, picking the perfect ornaments and balls for our tree. I wound the red beads around the tree (with the help of Tommy, who all the time was asking if he could pick the ornaments instead of Rosy). And Livy was our festive one; singing and dancing to the music. ;)

Finally, it was time for the great decision; which ornaments were going on the tree. Rosy won, but I let Tommy sneak a few of his on as well. I'm a huge softy when it comes to being in charge. :)

We also attempted a new tradition - stringing popcorn for the tree! Anyone who knows us well, knows that we eat popcorn. Quite alot. The strung popcorn actually turned out decently well! It adds alot of character to the tree. :D

ahh...Christmas decorating. Tommy assigned himself my decorating buddy this year. As he started telling me his ideas, I started to groan - "Oh, great. So much for a 'red & gold' only Christmas!" But then, I remember what it was like when I was that age; I had all kinds of ideas. But my mom let me do them anyway....and because of that, I have wonderful memories of Christmas decorating! Needless to say - Tommy did the decorating this year. ;) In the end, it all turned out wonderful - Livy and Rosy did the tree and Tommy and I, mainly did the fireplace and other decorating.

We actually didn't finished up decorating until this morning...so jumping back to last night.

Our church makes Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes, and last night we were given an opportunity to go work at the processing center in Atlanta. Many people from our church were traveling this week; so I asked some homeschool friends to go along. It was such a neat experience!

We inspected the shoe boxes, taped them shut and then put them into huge boxes to be sent overseas in.

It was so touching to see how much love went into some of those boxes. They were bursting full of toys, clothes, notebooks and candy. (Sadly, we had to throw out all meltable candy.) It was surprising and disheartening to see other boxes with one or two small things in them...a few where filled with used things (such as a box of chalk that looked like it had been siting in the garage for 10 years.) It is hard to know the situtation of the giver, but those poor children were getting so little while their best friends would be getting stuffed boxes with beautiful gifts. We filled them as much as we could, but they still looked empty. :(

We worked from 4 - 10, and I enjoyed it so much. Twice throughout the night, they would have prayer time. During this time, everyone in the wearhouse (there was probably 300 people) picked up a shoe box, wrapped their arms around it, and prayed over it. It almost brought tears to my eyes - I was one of the last people to hold this box before that child got it!! It was touching to see so many people do it~

I would highly recommend going! You do have to be 13 years old and it is very hard work....but very special. (not sure if special is the right word...guess it should be more like touching...or something of that nature...)

And wow! This turned into a monstrous blog post! hehe...so, what did all you do for Thanksgiving and Black Friday? I would love to hear about your adventures!!

Praising Him for His unfailing love -- Nikki ><>

P.S. One more thing - this post wasn't really about Thanksgiving, but I had to think of Thanksgiving 2008 as I baked in our huge kitchen Thursday morning, and showered in my shower. I have so much to thank God for...~