Black Friday

We did decide to go shopping this morning. So, we all donned some black and headed out to brave the crazy crowds ..... at ..... 10:30 am! Hey, we had 2 items to buy and got them both. One was a tool set at Lowe's and they still had tons of those even though they opened at 6 am. The other is a gift for one of my brother's kids and it came from Walmart - also had about a dozen left.

Walmart was empty! I mean of people. It surprised us. The aisles were big and open - obviously empty of whatever hot item was there, but we found several things we were looking for. Nothing was a big enough draw to get any of us up before 5 am.

After the shopping, lunch, and nap we headed to a local shopping village for their tree lighting and Santa parade. It was fun, but a little chilly for even us. The kids wore mittens! There were carolers from a local high school, some from the local theater and even ballerinas from our upcoming production of The Nutcracker performing up on stage. OK, those ballerinas must have been cold. The kids also got to climb up in the back of a firetruck, hug the Chic-Fil-A cows (they only reason I missed not bringing my camera), get candy canes from Santa and even see it snowing! Yes, snowing! They promise to have snow falling from the sky above where Santa will be sitting for 2 hours every Friday through Sunday until Christmas. Don't go grab your shovel or anything... it was soap bubbles! Really light, fluffy bubbles that really did look like those big white flakes floating down on you. Most popped before hitting you, but the rest disappeared immediately upon hitting you, so it took a few minutes for me to determine it was indeed soap. It was pretty cool watching it snow on the Nutcracker dancers. Gretchen really liked seeing them. She and I stood by the stage for a while as she fired off questions to me about why they were doing that move and why they were jumping and why were they bending over. I guess the concept of ballet must look pretty confusing to a four year old.


It was a lot of fun, Carl cheered when the lights turned on on the tree. He also turned to me and smiled, saying, "I like this song!" when the first few measures of "Sleigh Ride" (instrumental) started playing. I then heard him do his loud horse whiny and I knew exactly what he was thinking. He didn't express his liking for any other song all night. I don't know if I can even explain some of his musical talents. He and I were in the car the other day and I popped in a Christmas mix cassette (yes, no CD in my car - hey, it works!! Lew's doesn't, so my car is the luxury music car! She rolled 161616 the other day!) He was not happy with my choice and kept telling me to turn it off. Well, I made him listen to "Sleigh Ride" by Doc Severinsen until the end because the trumpet/horse sound is so cool on that version. Sure enough, he thought that was a riot! "Play it again, Mommy!" "Play the horse one more time, Mommy!" and so on. That was the first time he had listened to that song. He heard it fully maybe 2 times, and the ending rewound probably 5 more. We played it again that night when Lew was in the car so Daddy could hear how funny Carl found the arrangement. So, that was it, he heard the beginning of "Sleigh Ride" 3 times prior to telling me he liked it on Friday night. And his horse whiny right in the beginning told me he knew exactly what song he was listening to. See, I told you it is hard to explain. It doesn't sound as impressive when I type it all out. Sometimes, to really appreciate Carl, you just have to be here! And pay close attention, or you'll miss something spectacular! he isn't showy like Gretchen, that's for sure. But, nothing gets by him.


Guess what? My annual Christmas letter is not writing itself like I was hoping it would do if I put it off longer and longer.