As a rule I avoid it. I don’t do the “Buy Nothing Day” boycott because I don’t need an excuse to stay home and avoid crazy crowds but I tend to hole up and not go out until Saturday.

This year I had two strikes against me.  First, I remembered I needed to get the bulletins copied at Officemax for Saturday’s service. Second, I had to take a check to the bank that day.  So I found myself in Officemax with . . . . NO ONE ELSE.  Seriously, I missed the rush and it was pretty empty.  I’d been needing to get a new printer for the congregational office and John, who I’d been talking to about printers, was there. I asked if the one I was looking at was on sale and he showed me the one he thought would be even better–for over $100 OFF!  I bought a $300 printer for $173.  What a deal!

And I got an 8mb USB stick for $19.99–$52 dollars off.

All with NO CROWD!

And I was able to get the check deposited

I also went and invested in some New Balance shoes–my brother and sil recommended I get some because of my knees and back and I am able to wear these shoes all day and walk around without being in pain by evening. I bought walking shoes and a pair of nicer shoes that I am able to wear on Shabbat or other dressier occasions.  The guy working there said he’d never seen them on sale but they were for this weekend.

Throw in  that my laptop battey was dying and I  happened upon a Batteries Plus store that had the battery and a power cord and lunch with my mom and it was a very productive day.

With my best friend we divide the two large meal holidays–she hosts Passover each year and I host Thanksgiving.

I was SO prepared this year! No last minute run to the grocery store for that one forgotten item (thank you Christmas Notebook!) and I had everything but the last minute stuff done beforehand and just needing to be heated up.  The day of Thanksgiving I just had to put the Vegan Roast into the oven, boil and mash the unpotatoes (to which I did add potatoes), pop the stuffed mushrooms in for 20 minutes, and make the gravy. I asked dh to make the bread the night before but he has a penchant for waiting until the last minute.

So all of these things were mid-swing and the lights go off . . . and on . . . and off . . . and on . . . and off . . . and off they stayed!  I called APS to ask if they were going to have the lights on soon or if they just wanted to ruin my Thanksgiving and then we had to figure out what to do. We decided to give it 1/2 hour and if they weren’t on we’d head over to my friend’s house with half cooked food and finish there.  Thankfully the lights came back on before the 30 minutes and we got back to cooking.  Unfortunately that stop in things left the bread and the vegan roast not quite able to cook all the way through–even with cooking longer *sigh*

Still–it was all yummy–and thankfully a Vegan Roast slightly undercooked is not as big a deal as an undercooked turkey   Of course when we went to my parents’ house later for dessert I ate a turkey and goat cheese sandwich and it was, you got it, slightly undercooked.  Yet another reminder of why I want to return to being totally vegan in 2009.  I might keep fish once a week for the Omega oils we get from them (I’m allergic to flax) but otherwise I don’t want to reorder meat when we reorder our food delivery.

Anyway–I hope you ALL had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I know our family has a lot to be grateful for

But Fiona performed in the Holiday Spectacular Parade and it was wonderful! She was also part of the filming for the Christmas Day Commercial.  We were involved in the filming of the Jonas Brothers portion of the Christmas Spectacular so we might be in there too.

what was wonderful was that it was Saturday and the song the Jonas Brothers sang was their Joyous Kings–combo of Joy to the World and We Three Kings.  So we got to have Praise and Worship on Main Street!

Then Fiona had forgotten her glasses. We had a friend who raced them to our friend’s dad who has his business as the Greyhound bus stop for their town and he arranged for an agent to agent delivery of them.  They didn’t get there until MONDAY morning–so we got them back, but they were lost while we needed them.  Not to be detered (and thank you, Catherine for the suggestion!) I contacted the store where we bought them in Phoenix and had them fax the prescription to a Dr. Baros who made them in an hour.

He was an amazing man. I commented on the beautiful French music he had playing in his office and he shared that he spoke French at home with his family.  His heritage is quite fascinating and takes his father’s family from Jerusalem at the destruction of the 2nd Temple, into Spain, and then when Franco 2 began enacting certain laws they moved to Cuba–then to America.  Their name became Baros when they moved to Spain but before that was Baruch–which means Blessed. So we were blessed by a Baruch

Our trip was wonderful though I had to come face to face with my health in a way that I haven’t before.  The second day I was in a wheelchair and couldn’t walk across the room without my knee and ankle buckling–and when I stood my back was frozen in a not so straight way.   It was hard to feel so vulnerable. And I think I understand why babies don’t like strollers!  I’d be barreling towards a trashcan and dh would turn at the last minute–causing me no shortage of anxiety

We’re waiting to get the video of the event, but the whole experience was wonderful.

And we had a little GCM brunch where I got to meet more amazing GCMamas and every time I do I’m more convinced than ever that GCMamas are a very special breed.

and dd performed so well! She did a fantastic job and we’re very hopeful that she will be seen on the commercial airing Christmas Day.  I’m also excited because it was filmed for the Holiday Spectacular–and while she was filming we got to be a part of the filming of the Jonas Brothers’ part of the show.  It was pretty awesome.  It was really neat because it was Sabbath and they were performing a medley of Christmas worship songs.

I have a lot to share about our trip but I’ve been sick since we got home so I have to put it off a bit. I  will be back, though