Black Friday and other joys

I did it! I got up and went to the stores at 4 a.m.!!!!! Ok I need to deflate my head a little bit -- I did not pull a Joyce -- my sister-in-law does this marathon day starting with the earliest store she can get to and does the whole Walmart/Target/ToysRUs thing plus more. No, I only went to Kohl's and Belk and THe Children's Place in the mall. THere was a line at Kohl's but I was still in and out in half an hour and I got what I wanted at a killer price! The Children's Place was only supposed to be pajamas but I broke down and bought the cutest cutest skirt for Megan to wear for Christmas -- pictures to come in a few weeks!! But how can you resist when it's on clearance plus an additional 40% off PLUS %25 off the total purchase? You can't. Ok I can't. So my first BF experience was actually quite tame probably because I did avoid all of the crazy areas.

Chopper and I and my brother Jeff did hit Target on Saturday though just looking for basics like curling ribbon and wrapping paper. They have a ton there that is really cute but we got better deals at Joann Fabrics so I probably won't hit up Target for wrapping paper again until after Christmas. I did get one of those large spools of curling ribbon -- the cylinders -- and of course handed it to Megan because she likes to examine our purchases before we buy them -- presumably to check the quality and defects. She then spent the next 10 minutes putting the spool on her head and yelling "unicorn!" That surprised me a little because, well, we don't have a lot of exposure to unicorns but she apparently knows it and it was hilarious.

I love the holiday season with a nearly-2 year old. Of course our electricity bill is going to be atrocious because the Christmas tree lights have to be on ALL THE TIME and she repeats over and over "Chris tree, Chris tree star, Chris tree lights" and kisses it constantly. She doesn't bother the presents (no tree is complete without presents underneath, even if they are already from Santa) but we had to move them back because she falls over them when she leans in to kiss the tree. She LOVES LOVES LOVES Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas music. We've been watching a lot of their performances on YouTube and listening to it in the car and after every song she claps and says "yay! Again?" But when Chopper and I try to sing it's "no no no!!" Apparently she has a better ear for music than either of us do . . .