BLACK Friday

I'm not going to lie- I LOVED shopping on BLACK Friday today. We all (Jackson, Susie and I) got up at 3:30 and were in line at Target by 4. It opened at 5. We got a really cute shopping bag for being in line so early. They also had a deal going that you got a $10 gift card for every $100 spent. I may or may not have wrangled our way into getting 4 of those! :) Woo hoo! I am finished with my Christmas shopping now and I totaled my savings (I'm an accountant, leave me alone) and it was $355. That's a lot of money to save!! :) I won't lie- the presents I got are pretty awesome this year.

We got home from shopping at around 8(!!) and had a little wrapping party. It was so nice to have some help with all of my wrapping. Jackson was in charge of doing all of the ribbon work. He did a nice job, too! What a team.

We all napped this afternoon because 3:30 was an early wake-up call! We then headed down to they Cherry Creek area of Denver to do even more shopping and have dinner at the Cherry Cricket. Yum!

Now Jackson and Susie are at the University of Denver hockey game. I had intended to study tonight, but school is closed. I took that as a sign to blog. :)

A pie made with love

Anyone who knows me know that I have a distain for cinnamon. It makes me sick. I hate the look and smell of it. I hate the word, even. I don't like cinnamon's little spice cousins: ginger, cloves, nutmeg, etc. As you can imagine, this time of the year is h-e-doubles for me when it comes to my cinnamon hatred. For the second time in our marriage I was able to cover my nose with my shirt and bake Jackson a fresh pumpkin pie. I would not do this kind act if I didn't truly love this man. It was a wretched experience, yet again. On the plus side Jackson says it is the best looking pie he has even seen. Perhaps he's just kissing up because my whole condo has the stinch of pumpkin pie. Who knows?!

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

"Turkey Day" GRR

Quick rant:
    I get really annoyed when people call THANKSGIVING "turkey day." Honestly people. We already cannot say "Merry Christmas!" in the business setting so we opt to take the Thanks out of the Thanksgiving holiday? Jeesh. It drives me nuts! Thanksgiving is about just that: giving thanks for all of our blessing. It is NOT a holiday merely about turkey!!

So to end this rant I will wish you all a:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

My feelings about Pumpkin Pie

Jackson's external counterpart sent this to him at work today under the pretense that it would be sent out to their producing financial advisors. Jackson got a real kick out of it and wanted the blog world to see. :) The photo came with the caption that is written underneath it. Sigh. Boys will be boys! (I do have to say that I think pumpkin pie with all of its cinnamon and spice glory looks like throw up. Think about that as you eat slice after slice. ;))

We are working on the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving & hope to have enough for Christmas, too!

Hurting heart

My sister is 18 weeks pregnant. It feels like she's 18 years pregnant due to all of the complications in making little Alex. She has a shortened cervix (I must admit that all of this medical speak means nothing to me. Nothing. I'm just repeating what I've been told.) that may require surgery to close. She has 2 placentas which is very abnormal. She has to go see a high-risk doctor once a week until little Alex decides to check out of the "womb hotel." I have taken to calling it her "womb hotel" to try to convince her that he'd be crazy to check out early. :) Anyway, she's pretty down on herself right now. She thinks she is already a bad mom because she's not protecting him. I assured her as the logical sister (perhaps she's in trouble if I'm to logical one?!) that that simply is not true. I told her to blame our Mom for making her with a funny cervix! ;) (Just kidding, Deb.)


All of this to say, please keep Kylie, Nick (poor kid, he must feel so helpless) and Alex in your prayers. And as you parents give thanks this Thanksgiving, please remember how blessed you are to have a child. I will be thankful, as someone's child, that I'm here and healthy!

Christmas cookies!

Today, we ate at Buca di Beppo to celebrate our anniversary. It is a tradition and was great food as always. Tonight, I broke out my Christmas music on iTunes. I wrote a paper. Jackson grocery shopped. Then we started our Christmas baking for the dogs that MacKenzie will see when she's home. (Mom, the big Christmas trees are for Addison. I know. I cannot believe we made her so many treats either!) We really enjoy making these little cookies in all of their fun shapes. Ahh, the holidays are upon us. If only that didn't mean that finals were coming, too...

The Blind Side

I have been dying to see this movie and it finally came out today! Jackson and I headed to the Landmark Theatres (the ones with the free popcorn and sodas plus nice leather seats- LOVE IT!) to catch the 8:30 show. I laughed. I cried. I cried some more. (I'm kind of a weenie.) We both loved the movie. I cannot recommend it enough. It really makes one think about the impact actions of kindness can have one someone else's life. It really makes you think. So- stop reading this and go see it already! Sheesh. :)